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BANCROFT'S   HISTORY 


OF    THE 


UNITED     STATES     OF    AMERICA. 


CENTENARY  EDITION. 


VOL.  I. 


HISTORY 


OF   THE 


UNITED   STATES  OF  AMERICA, 


FROM 


THE    DISCOVERY    OF    THE    CONTINENT. 


BY 

GEORGE    BANCROFT. 


IN  SIX  VOLUMES. 
VOL.  I. 


THOROUGHLY    REVISED    EDITION. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND   COMPANY. 

1878. 


COPYRIGHT,  1834, 1837, 1859, 1862, 1865, 1876, 1837, 1865, 1876,  1878, 
BY  GEORGE  BANCROFT. 


CAMBRIDGE  : 
PRESS  OF  JOHN   WILSON    AND   SON. 


PREFATORY    NOTE. 


FOE  more  than  forty  years,  the  author  has  been  accus- 
tomed to  invite  and  receive,  from  friends  in  all  parts  of 
the  Union,  instruction  on  the  branches  of  American 
history  to  which  they  had  specially  given  attention ; 
and,  during  the  same  period,  new  and  more  complete 
materials  have  become  accessible  from  the  most  various 
sources.  Of  manuscripts  that,  have  fallen  within  his 
reach,  it  has  been  his  habit  to  take  copies  or  extracts, 
where  they  served  to  settle  a  question  of  importance, 
so  that  the  means  of  testing  any  controverted  statement 
might  always  be  at  hand. 

The  notes  and  papers  which  have  thus  been  accumu- 
lated form  the  groundwork  of  the  present  revision,  to 
which  a  solid  year  of  close  and  undivided  application 
has  been  devoted.  Every  noteworthy  criticism  that 
has  come  under  observation  has  been  carefully  weighed, 
accepted  for  what  it  was  worth,  and  never  rejected, 
except  after  examination.  The  main  object  has  been 
the  attainment  of  exact  accuracy ;  so  that,  if  pos- 
sible, not  even  a  partial  error  may  escape  correction. 
A  very  few  statements  disappear  before  the  severer 
application  of  the  rules  of  historical  criticism;  some 


VI  PREFATORY  NOTE. 

topics,  heretofore  omitted,  find  their  place ;   and  sim- 
plicity and  clearness  have  been  the  constant  aim. 

The  gratitude  due  to  the  invisible,  the  impartial  pub- 
lic, whose  service  alone  is  freedom,  can  be  shown  only 
by  continuing  the  pursuit  of  truth  so  long  as  there  is 
light. 

WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  December,  1876. 


CONTENTS   OF  VOLUME  I. 


INTRODUCTION,    p.  1. 
CHAPTER    I. 

EARLY  VOYAGES.      FRENCH   SETTLEMENTS. 

Icelandic  Voyages,  p.  5  —  Columbus,  5  —  First  Voyage  of  the  Cabots,  8  — 
Sebastian  Cabot,  10  —  Portuguese  Voyage,  10,  13  —  French  Voyages,  13  —  Car- 
tier,  14  —  Roberval,  16  —  De  la  Roche,  17  —  Champlain,  17  —  French  Settlements 
in  Acadia  and  Canada,  18. 

CHAPTER    II. 

SPANIAEDS  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES. 

Spanish  Love  of  Maritime  Adventure,  p.  22 — Ponce  de  Leon,  23  —  Diego 
Miruelo,  25  —  Fernandez,  25  —  Grijalva,  25  —  Garay,  25  —  De  Ayllon,  26  —  Cor- 
tes, 27  —  Gomez,  27  —  Pamphilo  de  Narvaez,  28  —  Cabeza  de  Vaca  discovers  the 
Mississippi,  31  —  He  crosses  the  Continent,  32  —  Coronado's  Explorations,  33  — 
Ferdinand  de  Soto,  39  —  Soto  sails  for  Florida,  40  —  Enters  Georgia,  43  —  Ala- 
bama, 44  —  Bluffs  of  the  Mississippi  River,  46 —  Soto  enters  Arkansas  and  Mis- 
souri, 47  —  Condition  of  the  Native  Tribes,  48  —  Death  and  Burial  of  Soto,  50  — 
Spaniards  on  the  Red  River,  50  —  They  leave  the  United  States,  52 — Missionaries 
in  Florida,  52  —  Florida  abandoned,  52  —  Coligny  plans  a  Settlement,  53  —  Hu- 
guenots in  South  Carolina,  54  —  Coligny's  Second  Colony,  55  —  Attacked  by  the 
Spaniards,  56  —  St.  Augustine  the  Oldest  Town  in  the  United  States,  58 — Mas- 
sacre of  the  French,  59  -r-  Avenged  by  De  Gourgues,  61  —  Extent  of  Spanish 
Dominions  in  America,  62. 

CHAPTER    HI. 

ENGLAND  TAKES  POSSESSION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Raleigh,  p.  63 — Voyages  in  the  Reign  of  Henry  VII.,  64  —  Voyages  In  the 
Reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  64 — Hore,  65  —  Parliament  legislates  on  America,  65 

—  Sebastian  Cabot  is  made  Grand  Pilot,  66 — Voyage  in  Search  of  a  North- 
east Passage,  66  —  Death  of  Cabot,  67  —  History  of  Eden,  67  —  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, 68  —  Frobisher's  Three  Voyages,  68  —  Drake  in  California  and  Oregon, 
72  — Fisheries,  73  — Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  73  — His  First  Voyage,  74  — Gil- 
bert and  Walter  Raleigh,  74  —  Gilbert  perishes  at  Sea,  75  —  Raleigh's  Patent,  75 

—  Voyage  of  Amidas  and  Barlow,  76  —  Raleigh  sends  a  Colony  to  North 
Carolina,  78  —  Native  Inhabitants,  79  —  111  Success  of  the  Colony,  79 — Its 
Return,  83  —  Grenville,  83  — City  of  Raleigh,  83— New  Colony  in  North  Caro- 


viii  CONTENTS. 

lina,83-VirgmiaDare,85-Raleigh's  Assigns,  85 -The  Roanoke  Colony  is 
E  86-Character  of  Raleigh,  86-Gosnold  and  the  Earl  of  Southampton,  88 
— Priug,  89-Waymouth,  90 -Character  of  the  Early  Navigators,  91. 

CHAPTER    IV. 

COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA. 

Condition  of  England  favors  Colonization,  p.  93  — The  First  Charter,  95  — 
King  James  legislates  for  Virginia,  96  —  Colonists  embark,  97  —  Arrive  in  Vir- 
ginia, 98— Jamestown,  98  — Distress  of  the  Colony,  99  — Adventures  of  Smith, 
100  — Smith  a  Captive,  101  — He  is  released,  102  — Smith  explores  the  Chesa- 
peake, 103  — Smith's  Administration,  103  — Second  Charter,  104  — Lord  Dela- 
ware, 105  —  Character  of  Smith,  106  —  The  Starving  Time,  106  —  Arrival  of  Lord 
Delaware,  107— Dale  introduces  Martial  Law,  109  —  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  110  — 
Jealousy  of  Spain,  111  — Third  Charter,  111  — Attack  on  the  French,  112  — 
Pocahontas  and  Rolfe,  113  — Dale's  Administration,  114  — Tenure  of  Lands, 
114 —  Tobacco,  117— Argall,  117  —  Yeardley,  117  — Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  John 
and  Nicholas  Ferrar,  118  — First  Colonial  Assembly,  119  — Its  Acts,  119  — 
Coat-of-Arms,  121  —  Earl  of  Southampton,  122  —  Women  emigrate  to  Virginia, 
123  —  Ordinance  for  the  Security  of  Virginia  Liberties,  124. 


CHAPTER    V. 

SLAVERY.      DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  LONDON   COMPANY. 

History  of  Slavery  and  the  Slave  Trade,  p.  126  —  Slavery  and  the  Slave 
Trade  in  the  Middle  Ages,  128  —  Origin  of  Negro  Slavery,  130  —  Influence  of  the 
Jurists  of  France,  130  —  Negroes  in  Portugal  and  Spain,  132  —  Native  Ameri- 
cans enslaved,  132  —  Negro  Slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  133  —  Opinions,  135  — 
England  and  the  Slave  Trade,  136  —  New  England  and  the  Slave  Trade,  137  — 
Servants,  138  — Slavery  in  Virginia,  139— Wyatt's  Administration,  140  — The 
Aborigines,  141  —  A  Massacre  and  a  War,  142  —  King  James  contends  with  the 
London  Company,  143  —  Commissioners  in  Virginia,  147  —  Spirit  of  the  Vir- 
ginians, 148  —  Dissolution  of  the  Company,  149  —  Virginia  retains  its  Liber- 
ties, 150. 

CHAPTER    VI. 

RESTRICTIONS  ON  COLONIAL  COMMERCE. 

Charles  I.,  p.  151— Virginia  retains  its  Liberties,  152  — Death  of  Yeardley, 
152  —  Harvey's  Administration,  153  —  Sir  Francis  Wyatt's,  156  —  Sir  William 
Berkeley's  Administration,  157  —  Intolerance,  159  — A  Second  Massacre  and 
War,  100  — Prosperity  of  Virginia,  161  — Parliament  asserts  its  Supremacy. 
101  —  Origin  of  the  Navigation  Act,  163  —Commercial  Policy  of  Cromwell,  164 
—  Of  the  Stuarts,  160  —  The  ( Parliament  and  Virginia,  168  — Virginia  capitu- 
latcs,  169— Virginia  during  the  Protectorate,  171— Virginia  and  its  Inhabitants 
173. 


CONTENTS.  IX 

CHAPTER    VII. 

COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND. 

Exploration  of  Chesapeake  Bay,  p.  178  —  Clayborne  occupies  Kent  Island, 
179  —  Sir  George  Gal  vert,  179  —  He  colonizes  Newfoundland,  180 — Visits  Vir- 
ginia, 180  —  The  Charter  for  Maryland,  181  —  Church  of  England  protected, 
382 — Non-conformists  not  excluded,  182  —  Death  of  Sir  George  Calvert,  183  — 
Cecil  Lord  Baltimore  obtains  the  Charter,  183  —  Opposition  of  Virginia,  183  — 
A  Company  of  Adventurers  send  the  First  Emigration,  184  —  Exploration  of 
the  Potomac,  184 — The  Planting  of  St.  Mary's,  185  —  Liberty  of  Conscience 
becomes  the  Custom  of  the  Colony,  186  —  Strife  with  Clayborne,  187  —  Mary- 
land exercises  Legislative  Rights,  187  —  Citizens  of  Maryland  have  all  English 
Liberties,  189  —  Church  Liberties,  190  —  Lord  Baltimore  invites  Puritans  as 
Colonists,  190  —  Relations  with  the  Aborigines,  190  —  Restraint  on  Grants  of 
Lands  to  Jesuits,  190  —  Disturbance  of  Ingle,  191  —  A  Protestant  Governor 
appointed,  193  —  Oath  and  Law  for  Religious  Liberty,  193  —  Civil  Liberty  se- 
cured, 195  —  Maryland  during  the  Commonwealth,  196  —  In  the  Time  of  Crom- 
well, 198  —  Papists  in  Maryland  few  in  Number,  198  —  Protestants  take  posses- 
sion of  the  Government,  199  —  Fendall  as  Governor,  200  —  Popular  Sovereignty 
exercised,  201. 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  PILGRIMS. 

Influence  of  Calvin,  p.  203  —  Early  Voyages  to  New  England,  204  —  Colony  ou 
the  Kennebec,  205  —  John  Smith  in  New  England,  207  — The  Council  at  Ply- 
mouth, 208  —  The  Reformation  in  Germany,  210  —  The  Reformation  in  England, 
210  — Henry  VIII.,  211— Edward  VI.,  212— Luther  and  Calvin,  212  — Calvin 
takes  part  in  the  English  Reformation,  213  —  Agreement  between  Calvin  and 
Cranmer,  214  —  The  Liturgy  of  1552,  214  —  Queen  Mary,  215  —  Puritans  burned 
at  the  Stake,  216  — And  in  exile,  216  — Queen  Elizabeth,  217  — Her  Choice  of 
the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  217  —  Her  dislike,  as  a  Monarch,  to  Puritanism, 
218  —  Adoption  of  the  Articles,  219  —  Parties  in  the  Church  of  England,  219  — 
They  contend  for  Supremacy,  220  —  The  Independents,  220  —  Persecution  of 
the  Independents,  220  —  Division  among  the  Puritans,  221 — Whitgift  becomes 
Archbishop,  222  —  Persecution  of  all  Non-conformists,  223  —  Independents  ask 
leave  to  colonize  Canada,  224  —  Intolerance  of  Bacon,  225  —  Two  Independents 
hanged  for  Dissent,  226  —  Martyrdom  of  John  Penry,  226  —  William  Brewster 
of  Scrooby,  227  —  Failure  of  the  Queen  to  subdue  the  Puritans,  227  —  Acces- 
sion and  Character  of  King  James,  228 — Why  he  liked  Bishops,  229  —  Confer- 
ence at  Hampton  Court,  230  —  The  Parliament  favors  the  Puritans,  2&1  —  The 
Convocation,  232  —  The  Independents  near  Scrooby  resolve  to  emigrate,  233  — 
Their  Minister  and  their  Ruling  Elder,  234  — Their  Flight  from  England,  235  — 
The  Pilgrims  in  Amsterdam  and  Leyden,  235  —  They  resolve  to  emigrate  to 
America,  236 — They  negotiate  with  the  London  Company,  237  —  Bacon's  Ideas 
on  Colonization,  238  —  The  Pilgrims  befriended  by  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  240  — 
They  plan  a  Settlement  on  the  Hudson,  240  —  They  form  a  Company  for  Emi- 
gration, 240  —  Their  Departure  from  Holland,  241  —  Their  Troubles  in  England, 
242  —  The  Pilgrims  at  Cape  Cod,  243  —  They  explore  the  Country,  244  —  The 


CONTENTS. 


252. 

CHAPTER    IX. 

EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

p.  854-  West,  Gorges   Mordl   256  i-Conte^t 


the  Emigrants,  278  -  Their  Character  and  Object,  279  -  Arrival  at  Salem,  280 
_  Settlement  at  Charleston,  Boston,  and  other  Places,  281  -  Organization  of 
the  Church  282  -Of  the  Government,  283  -The  First  Autumn  and  Winter, 
284  -  Arrival  of  Roger  Williams,  285  -  His  Principle  of  Religious  Liberty,  28 
The-  Oath  of  Fidelity,  287-  Annual  Elections  introduced,  288  -Dealings  with 
the  Indians  289  —  With  Plymouth,  289  —  Emigration  of  Haynes,  Cotton,  and 
Hooker   290  —  Freedom  of  "Election  maintained,  291  —  The  People  demand  a 
Code  of  Laws,  292  -  Dispute  with  Roger  Williams,  293  —  He  maintains  Liberty 
of  Conscience,  294  —  His  firm  support  of  Intellectual  Liberty,  297  —He  is  ex- 
iled from  Massachusetts,  299  —  Is  aided  by  the  Natives,  300  —  He  plants  Provi- 
dence, 301  —  His  Character,  301  —  Concord  settled,  302  —  Arrival  of  Hugh  Peter 
and  Henry  Vane,  303  —  Order  of  Nobility  proposed  and  rejected,  304  —  Anti- 
nomian  Controversy,  305  —  Anne  Hutchinson,  306  —  Rivalry  between  Vane 
and  Winthrop,  307  —  Vane  a  Friend  to  Perfect  Religious  Liberty,  308  —  Exeter 
founded  by  Exiles  from  Massachusetts,  309  —  Colony  at  Newport,  309  —  Death 
of  Anne  Hutchinson,  310  —  The  Valley  of  the  Connecticut,  311  —  Great  Emi- 
gration to  it,  312  —  War  with  the  Pequods,  313  —  Government  in  Connecticut, 
316  —  Differences  between  Winthrop  and  Hooker,  317  —  Constitution  of  Con- 
necticut, 318  —  Government  organized  in  New  Haven,  320. 

CHAPTER    X. 

THE  UNITED   COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 

Contentions  with  the  English  Government,  p.  322  —  Archbishop  Laud's  Commis- 
sion, 323  —  Massachusetts  resists,  324  —  The  Council  for  New  England  sur- 
renders its  Charter,  324  —  A  Quo  Warranto  against  Massachusetts,  325  —  Gorges 
as  Governor  of  New  England,  325  —  English  Persecution  peoples  America,  326 
—  Hampden  and  Cromwell  did  not  design  to  emigrate,  327  —  Massachusetts 
meets  Oppression  by  Threats  of  Independence,  328  —  Commotion  in  Scotland, 
329  —  Condition  of  New  England,  330  —  Favor  of  the  Long  Parliament,  331  — 
The  Body  of  Liberties,  332  —  Towns  and  Town  Meetings,  335  —How  Ministers 
were  chosen,  336  —  How  Land  was  held,  337  —  Massachusetts  annexes  New 


CONTENTS.  Xl 

Hampshire,  387  —  Strife  with  Gorton,  338  —  Movement  in  New  England  towards 
Union,  339  —  The  United  Colonies  of  New  England,  340  —  Strife  with  the  Nar- 
ragansetts,  342  —  Charter  granted  to  Roger  Williams,  344  —  Government  insti- 
tuted in  Providence,  345  —  Union  of  Newport  and  Rhode  Island  by  Charter, 
346  —  Progress  of  Maine,  347  —  Progress  of  Civil  Liberty  in  Massachusetts, 
849  —  Massachusetts  a  Republic,  350  —  Presbyterian  Cabal,  352  —  Dangerous 
Order  of  the  Long  Parliament,  355  —  Remonstrance  of  Massachusetts,  356  — 
Magnanimity  of  the  Long  Parliament,  357  —  Disagreement  among  the  New- 
England  Colonies,  359  —  Favor  of  Cromwell,  359  —  Massachusetts  complained 
of  for  Intolerance,  360  —  Persecution  of  Anabaptists,  362  —  Of  Quakers,  363  — 
Free  Schools  and  Harvard  College,  369  —  The  Character  of  Puritanism,  370  — 
Its  War  on  Priestcraft,  371  —  Effects  of  Puritanism,  372  —  Its  Character  in  New 
England,  373  — The  Humanity  of  its  Criminal  Code,  374  — Its  Effects  on  the 
People,  375  —  Its  Danger  from  the  Restoration,  376. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE   STUARTS. 

Failure  of  the  Democratic  Revolution  in  England,  p.  378  —  Charles  convenes 
and  dissolves  a  Parliament,  379  —  Council  at  York,  380  — Long  Parliament,  380  — 
Death  of  Strafford,  381  —  Progress  of  Reforms,  381  —  Long  Parliament  becomes  a 
Tyranny,  382  — The  Remonstrance,  382  — Civil  War,  383  — Nature  of  the  Con- 
test, 383  —  Division  of  Parties,  384  —  Presbyterians  and  Independents,  385  — 
Cromwell  and  Vane,  386  —  Triumph  of  the  Independents,  387  —  Trial  and  Execu- 
tion of  Charles  I.,  388  —  The  Counter-revolution,  391  —  Cromwell  and  the  Parlia- 
ment, 392  —  His  Character,  393  —  His  Parliaments,  395  —  His  Death,  398  —  Rich- 
ard, 398  —  Character  of  Monk,  399  —  Restoration,  400  —  Character  of  Charles 
II.,  401. 

CHAPTER    Xn. 

THE  RESTORED  DYNASTT  AND  IT8  FIRST  PARLIAMENT. 

The  Royalist  Parliament,  p.  404  — Death  of  Hugh  Peter,  405  —The  Regicides, 
406  —  Henry  Vane,  407  —  Puritanism  loses  Power,  410  —  Monarchy  and  Prelacy, 
411  —  Episcopal  Ordination,  412  —  Calvinist  Ministers  ejected,  412  —  The  Five- 
mile  Act,  412  —  Effect  on  the  Anglican  Church,  413  —  Supremacy  claimed  for 
Parliament  over  the  Colonies,  413  —  Navigation  Acts,  414. 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

CHARLES  II.      CONNECTICUT  AND  RHODE  ISLAND. 

Council  for  Colonies,  p.  419  —  Massachusetts,  419  —  Connecticut,  419  —  Char- 
acter of  the  Younger  Winthrop,  420  —  His  Success,  421  —  History  of  Connecti- 
cut, 422  —  Half-way  Covenant,  424  —  Rhode  Island,  427  —  Charter  read  and 
accepted,  428j=:Jojin^larkex429  —  Perfect  Liberty  of  Conscience,  430  —  Mary- 
land, 432  —  Virginfa,  432  —  Grants  of  Territory,  433. 


Xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XIV. 

MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CHARLES  H. 

Address  to  the  King,  p.  434  —  John  Eliot,  435  —  Declaration  of  Eights,  436  — 
Address  to  Charles  II.,  436  —  Parties  in  the  Colony,  437  —  Intolerance  renewed, 
438  —  Appointment  of  Royal  Commissioners,  439  —  Remonstrance,  440  —  Union 
of  Hartford  and  New  Haven,  444  —  Commissioners  in  Plymouth,  444  —  In  Mas- 
sachusetts, 445  —  In  New  Hampshire,  446  —  Complaint  of  Massachusetts  to  the 
King,  446  —  Maine,  446  —  Debate  in  the  General  Court,  447  —  Conquest  of  Can- 
ada proposed,  448  —  Debate  in  the  Privy  Council,  449. 

CHAPTER    XV. 

THE  ENGLISH  IN  NEW  ENGLAND  AND  THE  NATIVES. 

Prosperity  of  Massachusetts,  p.  451  —  Population  of  New  England  in  1675, 
452  —  The  Praying  Indians,  454  —  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  456  —  Caus-es  of  War, 
457  —  King  Philip's  War,  458  —  Defeat  of  the  Pokanokets,  459  —  Indian  War- 
fare, 459  —  Meeting  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  461  —  Ruin 
of  the  Narragansetts,  462  —  Canonchet,  462  —  Towns  burned,  462  —  Lancaster, 
462  —  Mary  Rowlandson,  463  —  The  Fate  of  Philip  and  his  Family,  464  —  The 
Result,  464  —  War  in  Maine,  465. 

CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE  OVERTHROW  OF  THE  CHARTER  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

Schemes  against  the  Charter  of  Massachusetts,  p.  467  -  Edmund  Randolph 

in  Boston,  468  —  Massachusetts  purchases  Maine,  469  —  Novel  Form  of  Gov- 

ernment, 470  —  New  Hampshire  a  Royal  Province,  470  —  Spirit  of  the  People 

-Disputes  with  Cranfield,  472  -  Massachusetts  and  the  Acts  of  Naviga- 

-  Requisitions  of  the  Committee  for  the  Plantations,  476  -The  Quo 

irranto,  477  -Debate  on  the  Required  Surrender,  478  -  Judgment,  480- 

Waxasserte  the  Right  of  Englishmen  in  Colonies  to  English  Institutions, 

-  End  of  the  New  England  Confederacy,  482. 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

8HAFTESBURT  AND  LOCKE  LEGISLATE  FOR  CAROLINA. 

Proprietaries  of  Carolina,  p.  483  -Opposing  Claims,  484  -  New-England 
ldo»  XT  Z       A  JT  Virgmia>  486  ~  Druram^d,  488  -  Planters  from  Bar- 
~ 


,        -  om    ar- 

hn        U      o       P  -  °harter  6Xtended'  49°  "Ashley  Cooper,  490 

^in'r^T^ 

NoS  Carolina  S      T  '  ?*  ~  G™S*  F°X'  5°°-The  Government  in 

Ima,  501  -Insurrection  and  Free  Government,  504-Seth  Sothel 

•  Character  of  the  Settlements  in  North  Carolina  508  ^ 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

FIRST  SETTLEMENTS  IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

First  Emigration  to  South  Carolina,  p.  509  —  The  Government,  510 — Charles- 
ton, 511  —  Emigrants,  512  —  Africans,  512  —  Dutch,  512  —  Vine-dressers,  513  — 
Churchmen,  513  —  Dissenters,  513  — Irish,  514 —  Scottish  Presbyterians,  514  — 
Huguenots,  514  —  Their  Tardy  Enfranchisement,  517  —  Contest  between  the 
People  and  the  Proprietaries,  521  —  The  People  prevail,  522. 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

VIKGINIA  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION. 

The  People  of  Virginia,  p.  525  —  Aristocracy,  526  —  Servants,  528  —  Slaves, 
529  —  Parties  in  Virginia  at  the  Restoration,  530  —  The  Royalists  cany  the  Elec- 
tions, 531  — The  Navigation  Act,  532  — Royalist  Legislation,  532— A  State 
Religion,  533  —  A  Fixed  Revenue  to  the  Crown,  534  —  An  Irresponsible  Judici- 
ary, 535  —  Taxation  by  County  Courts,  535  —  Law  for  Biennial  Assemblies 
abrogated,  535  —  Extravagant  Wages  of  Burgesses,  536  —  Universal  Suffrage 
abolished,  537  —  The  Valley  of  the  Kanawha,  538  —  Charles  II.  gives  away 
Virginia,  539  —  It  obtains  no  Charter,  541. 

CHAPTER  XX. 

THE   GREAT   REBELLION  IN  VIRGINIA. 

The  Old  Dominion  in  1674,  p.  542  —  Struggle  for  Popular  Freedom,  543  — 
Contests  with  the  Indians,  544  —  Nathaniel  Bacon,  546  —  Royalist  Assembly 
dissolved,  548  —  Popular  Party  elect  a  Majority  of  the  New  Assembly,  548  —  Its 
Acts,  548  —  The  Grand  Rebellion,  550  —  Drummond's  Proposition,  551  —  Bacon 
rises,  553 — Jamestown  burned,  554  —  Death  of  Bacon,  554  —  Robert  Beverley 
555  —  Hansford,  555  —  Cheesman  and  Wilford,  555  —  Drummond,  556  —  The 
Result,  557. 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


UNITED     STATES, 


INTRODUCTION. 

THE  United  States  of  America  constitute  an  essential  por- 
tion of  a  great  political  system,  embracing  all  the  civilized 
nations  of  the  earth.  At  a  period  when  the  force  of  moral 
opinion  is  rapidly  increasing,  they  have  the  precedence  in  the 
practice  and  the  defence  of  the  equal  rights  of  man.  The 
sovereignty  of  the  people  is  here  a  conceded  axiom,  and 
the  laws,  established  upon  that  basis,  are  cherished  with 
faithful  patriotism.  While  the  nations  of  Europe  aspire 
after  change,  our  constitution  engages  the  fond  admiration 
of  the  people,  by  which  it  has  been  established.  Prosperity 
follows  the  execution  of  even  justice ;  invention  is  quickened 
by  the  freedom  of  competition ;  and  labor  rewarded  with 
sure  and  unexampled  returns.  Domestic  peace  is  main- 
tained without  the  aid  of  a  military  establishment ;  public 
sentiment  permits  the  existence  of  but  few  standing  troops, 
and  those  only  along  the  seaboard  and  on  the  frontiers.  A 
gallant  navy  protects  our  commerce,  which  spreads  its  ban- 
ners on  every  sea,  and  extends  its  enterprise  to  every  clime. 
Our  diplomatic  relations  connect  us  on  terms  of  equality  and 
honest  friendship  with  the  chief  powers  of  the  world ;  while 
we  avoid  entangling  participation  in  their  intrigues,  their 
passions,  and  their  wars.  Our  national  resources  are  devel- 
oped by  an  earnest  culture  of  the  arts  of  peace.  Every  man 


INTRODUCTION. 


may  enjoy  the  «.  - 

pubUsh  its  ^"—ithe  interests  o£  the  people, 
tion,  is  necessari  y  i.       ihedw  itg  darabmty 

and  relies  exclusively  on  then  att.  ,cnmc 

*     -fiVon  tl      'uemies  ot  the  state,  u.  LUGI^ 

«£    *ew  states  are  forming  in  the  wilderness  ;  canals, 
inteScting  our  plains   and  crossing  our  highlands,  open 
"rchannefs  to   internal   commerce;    manufactures 
prosper  along  our  watercourses;  the  use  of  steam  on  our 
rivers  and  ralroads  annihilates  distance  by  the  acceleration 
of  speed     Our  wealth  and  population,  already  giving  v 
place  in  the  first  rank  of  nations,  are  so  rapidly  cumulative, 
that  the  former  is  increased  fourfold,  and  the  latter  is  doubled, 
in  every  period  of  twenty-two  or  twenty-three  years. 
is  no  national  debt;  the  community  is  opulent;  the  gover 
ment  economical;  and  the  public  treasury  full.     Religion, 
neither  persecuted  nor  paid  by  the  state,  is  sustained  by  the 
regard  for  public  morals  and  the  convictions  of  an  enlight- 
ened faith.    Intelligence  is  diffused  with  unparalleled  uni- 
versality ;  a  free  press  teems  with  the  choicest  productions 
of  all  nations  and  ages.    There  are  more  daily  journals  in 
the  United  States  than  in  the  world  beside.    A  public  docu- 
ment of  general  interest  is,  within  a  month,  reproduced  in 
at  least  a  million  of  copies,  and  is  brought  within  the  reach 
of  every  freeman  in  the  country.    An  immense  concourse 
of  emigrants  of  the  most  various  lineage   is  perpetually 
crowding   to   our  shores;    and  the   principles  of  liberty, 
uniting  all  interests  by  the  operation  of  equal  laws,  blend 
the   discordant   elements   into   harmonious   union.     Other 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

governments  are  convulsed  by  the  innovations  and  reforms 
of  neighboring  states ;  our  constitution,  fixed  in  the  affec- 
tions of  the  people,  from  whose  choice  it  has  sprung,  neu- 
tralizes the  influence  of  foreign  principles,  and  fearlessly 
opens  an  asylum  to  the  virtuous,  the  unfortunate,  and  the 
oppressed  of  every  nation. 

And  yet  it  is  but  little  more  than  two  centuries  since  the 
oldest  of  our  states  received  its  first  permanent  colony. 
Before  that  time  the  whole  territory  was  an  unproductive 
waste.  Throughout  its  wide  extent  the  arts  had  not  erected 
a  monument.  Its  only  inhabitants  were  a  few  scattered 
tribes  of  feeble  barbarians,  destitute  of  commerce  and  of 
political  connection.  The  axe  and  the  ploughshare  were 
unknown.  The  soil,  which  had  been  gathering  fertility  from 
the  repose  of  centuries,  was  lavishing  its  strength  in  mag- 
nificent but  useless  vegetation.  In  the  view  of  civilization 
the  immense  domain  was  a  solitude. 

It  is  the  object  of  the  present  work  to  explain  how  the 
change  in  the  condition  of  our  land  has  been  brought  about ; 
arid,  as  the  fortunes  of  a  nation  are  not  under  the  control  of 
blind  destiny,  to  follow  the  steps  by  which  a  favoring  Provi- 
dence, calling  our  institutions  into  being,  has  conducted  the 
country  to  its  present  happiness  and  glory.  1834. 


COLONIAL   HISTORY. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY    VOYAGES.      FRENCH    SETTLEMENTS. 

THE  enterprise  of  Columbus,  the  most  memorable  mari- 
time enterprise  in  the  history  of  the  world,  formed  between 
Europe  and  America  the  communication  which  will  never 
cease.  The  story  of  the  colonization  of  America  by  North- 
men rests  on  narratives,  mythological  in  form,  and  obscure 
in  meaning;  ancient,  yet  not  contemporary.  The  intrepid 
mariners  who  colonized  Greenland  could  easily  have  ex- 
tended their  voyages  to  Labrador,  and  have  explored  the 
coasts  to  the  south  of  it.  No  clear  historic  evidence  es- 
tablishes the  natural  probability  that  they  accomplished  the 
passage ;  and  no  vestige  of  their  presence  on  our  continent 
has  been  found. 

Nearly  three  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  Aristotle, 
following  the  lessons  of  the  Pythagoreans,  had  taught  that 
the  earth  is  a  sphere,  and  that  the  water  which  bounds 
Europe  on  the  west  washes  the  eastern  shores  of  Asia. 
Instructed  by  him,  the  Spaniard  Seneca  believed  that  a  ship, 
with  a  fair  wind,  could  sail  from  Spain  to  the  Indies  in  the 
space  of  a  very  few  days.  The  opinion  was  revived  in  the 
middle  ages  by  Averroes,  the  Arab  commentator  of  Aristotle. 
Science  and  observation  assisted  to  confirm  it ;  and  poets  of 
ancient  and  of  more  recent  times  had  foretold  that  empires 
beyond  the  ocean  would  one  day  be  revealed  to  the  daring 
navigator.  The  genial  country  of  Dante  and  Buonarotti 
gave  birth  to  Christopher  Columbus,  by  whom  these  lessons 
were  so  received  and  weighed  that  he  gained  the  glory  of 
fulfilling  the  prophecy.  Accounts  of  the  navigation  from 


6  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  I. 

the  eastern  coast  of  Africa  to  Arabia  had  reached  the 
western  kingdoms  of  Europe ;  and  adventurous  Venetians, 
returning  from  travels  beyond  the  Ganges,  had  filled  the 
world  with  dazzling  descriptions  of  the  wealth  of  China  as 
well  as  marvellous  reports  of  the  outlying  island  empire  of 
Japan.  It  began  to  be  believed  that  the  continent  of  Asia 
stretched  over  far  more  than  a  hemisphere,  and  that  the  re- 
maining distance  round  the  globe  was  comparatively  incon- 
siderable. Yet  from  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century 
the  navigators  of  Portugal  had  confined  their  explorations 
to  the  coast  of  Africa ;  and,  when  they  had  ascertained  that 
the  torrid  zone  is  habitable  even  under  the  equator,  the  dis- 
covery of  the  islands  of  Madeira  and  the  Azores  could  not 
divert  them,  from  the  purpose  of  turning  the  southern  capes 
of  that  continent,  and  steering  past  them  to  the  land  of 
spices,  which  promised  untold  wealth  to  the  merchants  of 
Europe,  new  dominions  to  its  princes,  and  heathen  nations 
to  the  religion  of  the  cross.  Before  the  year»1474,  and  per- 
haps as  early  as  1470,  Columbus  was  attracted  to  Lisbon, 
which  was  then  the  great  centre  of  maritime  adventure. 
lie  came  to  insist  with  immovable  resoluteness  that  the  short- 
est route  to  the  Indies  lay  across  the  Atlantic.  By  letters 
from  the  venerable  Toscanelli,  the  illustrious  astronomer  of 
Florence,  who  had  drawn  a  map  of  the  world  with  eastern 
Asia  rising  over  against  Europe,  he  was  riveted  in  his  faith, 
and  lived  only  in  the  idea  of  laying  open  the  western  path 
to  the  Indies. 

After  more  than  ten  years  of  vain  solicitations  in  Portugal, 
he  left  the  banks  of  the  Tagus,  to  seek  the  aid  of  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella,  rich  in  nautical  experience,  having  watched  the 
stars  at  sea  from  the  latitude  of  Iceland  to  near  the  equator 

Elmma.    Though  yet  longer  baffled  by  the  skepticism 
which  knew  not  how  to  share  his  aspirations,  he  lost  nothing 

the  grandeur  of  his  conceptions,  or  the  magnanimity  of 

.s  character  or  devotion  to  the  sublime  enterprise  to  which 

he  held  himself  elected  from  his  infancy  by  the  promises  of 

;  and  when  half  resolved  to  withdraw  from   Spain, 

travelling  on  foot  he  knocked  at  the  gate  of  the  monastery^ 

La  Rabida,  at  Palos,  to  crave  the  needed  charity  of  food 


1493.       EARLY   VOYAGES.     FRENCH   SETTLEMENTS.  7 

and  shelter  for  himself  and  his  little  son  whom  he  led  by 
the  hand,  the  destitute  and  forsaken  seaman,  in  his  naked 
poverty,  was  still  the  promiser  of  kingdoms  ;  holding  firmly 
in  his  grasp  "the  keys  of  the  ocean  sea,"  claiming,  as  it 
were  from  Pleaven,  the  Indies  as  his  own,  and  "  dividing 
them  as  he  pleased."     The  increase  of  years  did  not 
impair  his  holy  confidence ;   and  in  1492,  when  he       1492. 
seemed  to  have  outlived  the  possibility  of  success,  he 
gave  a  New  World  to  Castile  and  Leon,  "  the  like  of  which 
was  never  done  by  any  man  in  ancient  or  in  later  times." 

The  self-love  of  Ferdinand  of  Spain  was  offended  at  owing 
to  a  foreigner  benefits  too  vast  for  requital ;  and  the  contem- 
poraries of  the  great  mariner  persecuted  the  merit  which 
they  could  not  adequately  reward.  Nor  had  posterity  been 
mindful  to  gather  into  a  finished  picture  the  memorials  of 
his  career,  till  Irving,  with  candor,  liberality,  and  original 
research,  made  a  record  of  his  life,  and  in  mild  but  enduring 
colors  sketched  his  inflexibility  of  purpose,  the  trances  of  his 
mystic  devotion,  and  the  unfailing  greatness  of  his  soul. 

Successive  popes  of  Rome  had  already  conceded  to  the 
Portuguese  the  undiscovered  world,  from  Cape  Bojador  in 
Africa,  easterly  to  the  Indies.     To  prevent  collision 
between  Christian  princes,  on  the  fourth  of  May,  1493,       1493. 
Alexander  VI.  published  a  bull,  in  which  he  drew  an 
imaginary  line  from  the  north  pole  to  the  south  a  hundred 
leagues  west  of  the  Azores,  assigning  to  Spain  all  that  lies 
to  the  west  of  that  boundary,  while  all  to  the  east  of  it  was 
confirmed  to  Portugal. 

The  commerce  of  the  middle  ages,  concentrated  upon  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  had  enriched  the  Italian  republics,  and 
had  been  chiefly  engrossed  by  their  citizens.  After  the  fall 
of  the  Byzantine  empire,  the  Christian  states  desired  to 
escape  the  necessity  of  strengthening  the  Ottoman  power  by 
the  payment  of  tribute  on  all  intercourse  with  the  remoter 
east.  Maritime  enterprise,  transferring  its  home  to  the  bor- 
ders of  the  Atlantic,  set  before  itself  as  its  great  problem  the 
discovery  of  a  pathway  by  sea  to  the  Indies ;  and  England, 
which  like  Spain  and  Portugal  looked  out  upon  the  ocean, 
became  a  competitor  for  the  unknown  world. 


8  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  I. 

The  wars  of  the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster  had  ter- 
minated with  the   intermarriage  of  the  heirs   of  the  two 
families ;  the  spirit  of  commercial  activity  began  to  be  suc- 
cessfully fostered  ;  and  the  marts  of  England  were  frequented 
by  Lombard  adventurers.     The  fisheries  of  the  north  had 
long  tempted  the  merchants  of  Bristol  to  an  intercourse  with 
Iceland  ;  and  had  matured  the  nautical  skill  that  could  buffet 
the  worst  storms  of  the  Atlantic.     Nor  is  it  impossible  that 
some  uncertain  traditions  respecting  the  remote  discoveries 
which  Icelanders  had  made  in  Greenland  towards  the  north- 
west, "  where  the  lands  nearest  meet,"  should  have  excited 
"  firm  and  pregnant  conjectures."     The  achievement  of  Col- 
umbus, revealing  the  wonderful  truth  of  which  the  germ 
may  have  existed  in  the  imagination  of  every  thoughtful 
mariner,  won  the  admiration  which  belonged  to  genius  that 
seemed  more  divine  than  human  ;  and  "  there  was  great  talk 
of  it  in  all  the  court  of  Henry  VII."     A  feeling  of  disap- 
pointment remained,  that  a  series  of  disasters  had  defeated 
the  wish  of  the  illustrious  Genoese  to  make  his  voyage  of 
essay  under  the  flag  of  England.     It  was,  therefore,  not  diffi- 
cult for  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian,  then  residing  at  Bristol,  to 
interest  that  politic  king  in  plans  for  discovery.     On 
1496.      the  fifth  of  March,  1496,  he  obtained  under  the  great 
seal  a  commission,  empowering  himself  and  his  three 
sons,  or  either  of  them,  their  heirs,  or  their  deputies,  to  sail 
into  the  eastern,  western,  or  northern  sea,  with  a  fleet  of  five 
ships,  at  their  own  expense,  in  search  of  islands,  provinces, 
or  regions,  hitherto  unseen  by  Christian  people ;  to  affix  the 
banners  of  England  on  city,  island,  or  continent;  and,  as 
*als  of  the  English  crown,  to  possess  and  occupy  the  ter- 
ritories that  might  be  found.    It  was  further  stipulated  in 
this  "most  ancient  American  state  paper  of  England,"  that 
the  patentees  should  be  strictly  bound,  on  every  return,  to 
and  at  the  port  of  Bristol,  and  to  pay  to  the  king  one  fifth 
part  of  their  gams ;  while  the  exclusive  right  of  frequently 
til  the  countries  that  might  be  found  was  reserved  to  them 
to  their  assigns,  unconditionally  and  without  limit  of 

LlITlG. 

Under  this  patent,  which,  at  the  first  direction  of  English 


1498.      EARLY  VOYAGES.    FRENCH  SETTLEMENTS. 

enterprise  towards  America,  embodied  the  worst  features  of 
monopoly  and  commercial  restriction,  John  Cabot,  taking 
with  him  his  son  Sebastian,  embarked  in  quest  of  new  islands 
and  a  passage  to  Asia  by  the  north-west.  After  sailing 
prosperously,  as  he  thoiight,  for  seven  hundred  leagues, 
on  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  June,  1497,  early  in  the  1497. 
morning,  almost  fourteen  months  before  Columbus  on 
his  third  voyage  came  in  sight  of  the  main,  and  more  than 
two  years  before  Amerigo  Vespucci  sailed  west  of  the  Cana- 
ries, he  discovered  the  western  continent,  probably  in  the 
latitude  of  about  fifty-six  degrees,  among  the  dismal  cliffs  of 
Labrador.  He  ran  along  the  coast  for  many  leagues,  it  is 
Raid  even  for  three  hundred,  and  landed  on  what  he  con- 
sidered to  be  the  territory  of  the  Grand  Cham.  But  he 
encountered  no  human  being,  although  there  were  marks 
that  the  region  was  inhabited.  He  planted  on  the  land  a 
large  cross  with  the  flag  of  England,  and,  from  affection  for 
the  republic  of  Venice,  he  added  also  the  banner  of  St.  Mark, 
which  had  never  before  been  borne  so  far.  On  his  homeward 
voyage  he  saw  on  his  right  hand  two  islands,  which  for  want 
of  provisions  he  could  not  stop  to  explore.  After  an  absence 
of  three  months,  the  great  discoverer  re-entered  Bristol  har- 
bor, where  due  honors  awaited  him.  The  king  gave  him 
money,  and  encouraged  him  to  continue  his  career.  The 
people  called  him  the  great  admiral ;  he  dressed  in  silk ;  and 
the  English,  and  even  Venetians  who  chanced  to  be  at 
Bristol,  ran  after  him  with  such  zeal  that  he  could  enlist  for 
a  new  voyage  as  many  as  he  pleased. 

A  second  time  Columbus  had  brought  back  tidings  from 
the  isles  which  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  steadfastly  believed 
to  be  the  outposts  of  India.  It  appeared  to  be  demonstrated 
that  ships  might  pass  by  the  west  into  those  rich  eastern 
realms  where,  according  to  the  popular  belief,  the  earth 
teemed  with  spices,  and  imperial  palaces  glittered  with 
pearls  and  rubies,  with  diamonds  and  gold.  On  the 
third  day  of  the  month  of  February  next  after  his  1498. 
return,  "John  Kaboto,  Venician,"  accordingly  ob- 
tained a  power  to  take  up  ships  for  another  voyage,  at  the 
rates  fixed  for  those  employed  in  the  service  of  the  king, 


10  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  I. 

and  once  more  to  set  sail  with  as  many  companions  as  would 
go  with  him  of  their  own  will.  With  this  license  every  trace 
of  John  Cabot  disappears.  He  may  have  died  before  the 
summer;  but  no  one  knows  certainly  the  time  or  the  place 
of  his  end,  and  it  has  not  even  been  ascertained  in  what 
country  this  finder  of  a  continent  first  saw  the  light,  lie 
wife  was  a  Venetian  woman,  but  at  Venice  he  had  himself 
gained  the  rights  of  citizenship  in  1476,  only  after  the  resi- 
dence of  fifteen  years,  which  was  required  of  aliens  bete 
denization. 

His  second  son,  Sebastian   Cabot,  probably  a  Venetian 
by  birth,  a  cosmographer  by  profession,  succeeded  to   the 
designs  of  his  father.    He  reasoned  justly,  that,  as  the  de- 
grees of  longitude  decrease  towards  the  north,  the  shortest 
route  to  China  and  Japan  lies  in  the  highest  practicable 
latitude ;  and  with  youthful  fervor  he  devoted  him- 
U98.      self  to  the  experiment.      In  May,  1498,  Columbus, 
radiant  with   a  glory  that   shed   a  lustre   over  his 
misfortunes   and  griefs,  calling  on   the  Holy  Trinity  with 
vows,  and  seeing  paradise  in  his  dreams,  embarked  on  his 
third  voyage  to  discover  the  main  land,  and  to  be  sent  back 
in  chains.    In  the  early  part  of  the  same  month,  Sebastian 
Cabot,  then  not  much  more  than  twenty-one  years  of  age, 
chiefly  at  his  own  cost,  led  forth  two  ships  and  a  large 
company  of  English  volunteers,  to  find  the  north-west  pas- 
sage to  Cathay  and  Japan.     A  few  days  after  the  English 
navigator  had  left  the  port  of  Bristol,  Vasco  da  Gama,  of 
Portugal,  as  daring  and  almost  as  young,  having  turned  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  cleared  the  Straits  of  Mozambique,  and 
sailed  beyond  Arabia  Felix,  came  in  sight  of  the  mountains 
of  Hindostan ;   and  his  happy  crew,  decking  out  his  little 
fleet  with  flags,  sounding  trumpets,  praising  God,  and  full  of 
festivity  and  gladness,  steered  into  the  harbor  of  Calicut. 
Meantime  Cabot  proceeded  towards  the  north,  till  icebergs 
compelled  him  to  change  his  course.     The  coast  to  which 
he  was  now  borne  was  unobstructed  by  frost.     He   saw 
there  stags  larger  than  those  of  England,  and  bears  that 
plunged  into  the  water  to  take  fish  with  their  claws.     The 
fish  swarmed   innumerably,   in   such   shoals   they  seemed 


1198.        EARLY  VOYAGES.    FRENCH   SETTLEMENTS.          11 

even  to  affect  the  speed  of  his  vessels,  so  that  he  gave  to 
the  country  the  name  of  Bacallaos,  a  word  of  German 
origin,  which  still  lingers  on  the  eastern  side  of  Newfound- 
land, and  has  passed  into  the  language  of  the  Italians  as 
well  as  the  Portuguese  and  Spanish,  to  designate  the  cod. 
Continuing  his  voyage,  according  to  the  line  of  the  shore, 
he  found  the  natives  of  those  regions  clad  in  skins  of  beasts, 
but  they  were  not  without  the  faculty  of  reason,  and  in 
many  places  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of  copper.  In 
the  early  part  of  his  voyage,  he  had  been  so  far  to  the 
north  that  in  the  month  of  July  the  light  of  day  was  al- 
most continuous ;  before  he  turned  homewards,  in  the  late 
autumn,  he  believed  he  had  attained  the  latitude  of  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar  and  the  longitude  of  Cuba.  As  he 
sailed  along  the  extensive  coast,  a  gentle  westerly  current 
appeared  to  prevail  in  the  northern  sea. 

Such  is  the  meagre  account  given  by  Sebastian  Cabot, 
through  his  friend  Peter  Martyr,  the  historian  of  the  ocean, 
of  that  great  voyage  which  was  undertaken  by  the  authority 
of  "  the  most  wise  "  prince  Henry  VII.,  and  made  known 
to  England  a  country  "  much  larger  than  Christendom." 

Thus  the  year  1498  stands  singularly  famous  in  the  annals 
of  the  sea.  In  May,  Vasco  da  Gama  reached  Hindostan  by 
way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope ;  in  August,  Columbus  dis- 
covered the  firm  land  of  South  America,  and  the  river 
Oronoco,  which  seemed  to  him  to  flow  from  some  large 
empire,  or  perhaps  even  from  the  terrestrial  paradise  itself ; 
and,  in  the  summer,  Cabot,  the  youngest  of  them  all,  made 
known  to  the  world  the  coast  line  of  the  present  United 
States,  as  far  as  the  entrance  to  the  Chesapeake.  The  fame 
of  Columbus  was  embalmed  in  the  poetry  of  Tasso ;  Da 
Gama  is  the  hero  of  the  national  epic  of  Portugal ;  but  the 
elder  Cabot  was  so  little  celebrated  that  even  the  reality  of  his 
voyage  has  been  denied ;  and  Sebastian  derived  neither  benefit 
nor  immediate  renown  from  his  expedition.  His  main  object 
had  been  the  discovery  of  a  north-western  passage  to  Asia, 
and  in  this  respect  his  voyage  was  a  failure ;  while  Da  Gama 
was  cried  up  by  all  the  world  for  having  found  the  way  by 
the  south-east.  For  the  next  half  century  it  was  hardly 


12  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  I. 

borne  in  mind  that  the  Venetian  and  his  son  had,  in  two 
Bucccssive  years,  reached  the  continent  of  North  America, 
before  Columbus  came  upon  the  low  coast  of  Guiana.  But 
England  acquired  through  their  energy  such  a  right  to  North 
America  as  this  priority  could  confer.  The  successors  of 
Henry  VII.  recognised  the  claims  of  Spain  and  Portugal,  only 
so  far  as  they  actually  occupied  the  territories  to  which  they 
laid  pretension ;  and,  at  a  later  day,  the  English  parliament 
and  the  English  courts  derided  a  title  founded  not  upon  occu- 
pancy, but  upon  the  award  of  a  Roman  pontiff. 

"  Lord,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit,"  were 
1506.      the  words  of  Columbus,  as  on  Ascension  Day,  1506, 

he  breathed  his  last.  His  great  discovery  was  the 
triumph  of  free  mind.  In  the  year  of  his  death,  Copernicus, 
emancipated  from  obsequiousness  to  authority  and  super- 
stition, attained  the  knowledge  of  the  true  theory  of  our 
solar  system. 

For  nearly  sixty  years,  during  a  period  while  marine 
adventure  engaged  the  most  intense  public  curiosity,  the 
illustrious  mariner,  from  whom  England  derived  a  claim  to 
our  shores,  was  reverenced  for  his  knowledge  of  cosmography 
and  his  skill  in  navigation.  On  the  death  of  Henry  VII., 
he  was  called  out  of  England  by  the  command  of  Ferdinand, 
the  Catholic  king  of  Castile,  and  was  appointed  one  of  the 
Council  for  the  New  Indies,  ever  cherishing  the  hope  to 

discover  "  that  hidden  secret  of  nature,"  the  direct 
me.  passage  to  Asia.  In  1518  he  was  named  Pilot  Major 

of  Spain,  and  no  one  could  guide  a  ship  to  the  Indies 

whom  he  had  not  first  examined  and  approved.  He 
1524.  attended  the  congress  which  in  April,  1524,  assembled 

at  Badajoz  to  decide  on  the  respective  pretensions 
of  Portugal  and  Spain  to  the  islands  of  the  Moluccas.  A 

company  having  been  formed  at  Seville  for  commerce 
1526.  with  the  Indies,  in  April,  1526,  he  took  command  of 
^  an  expedition  with  plans  of  passing  into  the  Pacific, 
examining  the  south-western  coast  of  the  American  continent, 
and  opening  a  trade  with  the  Moluccas.  His  larger  purposes 
being  defeated  by  a  mutiny,  he  entered  the  Plata,  and  dis- 
covered the  Parana  and  Paraguay.  Returning  to  SeviUe  in 


1527.        EARLY   VOYAGES.     FRENCH   SETTLEMENTS.        13 

July,  1530,  he  was  reinstated  in  his  high  office  by  the       1530. 
emperor  Charles  V. 

Manuel,  king  of  PORTUGAL  in  its  happiest  years,  grieved 
at  his  predecessor's  neglect  of  Columbus,  was  moved  by  emu- 
lation to  despatch  an  expedition  for  west  and  north- 
west discovery.  In  the  summer  of  1501,  two  caravels  1501. 
under  the  command  of  Gaspar  Cortereal  ranged  the 
coast  of  North  America  for  six  or  seven  hundred  miles,  till, 
somewhere  to  the  south  of  the  fiftieth  degree,  they  were 
stopped  by  ice.  Of  the  country  along  which  he  sailed,  he 
admired  the  verdure,  and  the  stately  forests  in  which  pines, 
large  enough  for  masts  and  yards,  promised  an  object  of  gain- 
ful commerce.  But,  with  the  Portuguese,  men  were  an  article 
of  traffic ;  and  Cortereal  freighted  his  ships  with  more  than 
fifty  Indians,  whom,  on  his  return  in  October,  he  sold  as 
slaves.  The  name  of  Labrador,  transferred  from  the  terri- 
tory south  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  a  more  northern  coast,  is 
a  memorial  of  his  voyage ;  and  is,  perhaps,  the  only  perma- 
nent trace  of  Portuguese  adventure  within  the  limits  of 
North  America. 

The  FRENCH  competed  without  delay  for  the  New 
World.     Within  seven  years  of  the  discovery  of  the       ISM. 
continent,  the  fisheries  of  Newfoundland  were  known 
to  the  hardy  mariners  of  Brittany  and  Normandy,  and  they 
continued   to  be  frequented.     The  Island  of  Cape  Breton 
took  its  name  from  their  remembrance   of  home ;  and   in 
France  it  was  usual  to  esteem  them  the  discoverers  of  the 
country.    A  map  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  was 
drawn  in  1506  by  Denys,  a  citizen  of  Honfleur.  i5<x>. 

In  1508,  savages  from  the  north-eastern  coast  had       1508. 
been  brought  to  France  ;  ten  years  later,  plans  of  col-       isis. 
onization  in  North  America  were  suggested  by  De 
Lery  and  Saint-Just. 

There  exists  a  letter  to  Henry  VIII.,  from  St.  John, 
Newfoundland,  written  in  August,  1527,  by  an  English       isar. 
captain,  in  which  he  declares  he  found  in  that  one 
harbor  eleven  sail   of  Normans  and  one   Breton,   engaged 
in  the  fishery.     The  French  king,  engrossed  by  the  unsuc- 
cessful rivalry  with  Charles  V.,  could  hardly  respect  so 


14  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  I. 

humble  an  interest.    But  Chabot,  admiral  of  France,  a  man 

of   bravery   and  influence,   acquainted  by  his   office   with 

the  fishermen,  on  whose  vessels  he  levied  some  small  exac- 
tions for  his  private  emolument,  interested  Francis 

1534.  in  the  design  of  exploring  and  colonizing  the  New 
World.  James  Cartier,  a  mariner  of  St.  Malo,  was 

selected  to  lead  the  expedition.  His  several  voyages  had  a 
permanent  effect  in  guiding  the  attention  of  France 

April  20.  to  the  region  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  It  was  in  April 
that  the  mariner,  with  two  ships,  left  the  harbor  of 
St.  Malo  ;  and  prosperous  weather  brought  him  in 

May  10.  twenty  days  upon  the  coasts  of  Newfoundland.  Hav- 
ing almost  circumnavigated  the  island,  he  turned  to  the 

south,  and,  crossing  the  gulf,  entered  the  bay,  which  he  called 
DCS  Chalcurs,  from  the  heats  of  midsummer.     Find- 
July  12.  ing  no  passage  to  the  west,  in  July  he  sailed  along 
the  coast,  as  far  as  the  smaller  inlet  of  Gaspe.    There, 

upon  a  point  of  land,  at  the  entrance  of  the  haven,  a  lofty 

cross  was  raised,  bearing  a  shield,  Avith  the  lilies  of  France 
and  an  appropriate  inscription.  Leaving  the  Bay  of 

Aug.  Gaspe,  Cartier  in  August  discovered  the  great  river 
of  Canada,  and  ascended  its  channel,  till  he  could 
discern  land  on  either  side.  As  he  was  unprepared 

Aug.  9.  to  remain  during  the  winter,  on  the  ninth  of  that 
month  he  steered  for  Europe,  and,  in  less  than  thirty 

Sept.  5  days,  his  fleet  entered  the  harbor  of  St.  Malo.  His 
native  city  and  France  were  filled  with  the  fame  of 

his  discoveries. 

The  court  listened  to  the    urgency  of   the   friends   of 

Cartier ;  a  new  commission  was  issued  ;  three  well-furnished 

ships  were  provided  by  the  king ;  and  some  of  the  young 

nobility  of  France  volunteered  to  join  the  new  expedition. 

Previous  to  the  embarkation,  the  whole  company,  repairing 
1635     t0  th-G  cathedra1'  received  absolution  and  the  bishop's 

May  19.  blessing.  In  May,  1535,  the  adventurers  sailed  for 
the  New  World,  full  of  hopes  of  discoveries  and 

plans  of  colonization. 

After  a  stormy  voyage  they  arrived  within  sight  of  New- 

foundland.     Carried  to  the  west  of  it  by  a  route  not  easily 


1535.      EARLY   VOYAGES.     FRENCH   SETTLEMENTS.          15 

traced,  on  the  day  of  Saint  Lawrence,  they  gave  the  1535 
name  of  that  martyr  to  a  part  of  the  noble  gulf  which  Au8- 10- 
opened  before  them ;  a  name  which  has  gradually  extended 
to  the  whole,  and  to  the  river.  After  examining  the  Isle 
of  Anticosti,  they  reached  in  September  a  pleasant  har- 
bor in  the  isle  since  called  Orleans.  The  natives,  Indians 
of  Algonkin  descent,  received  them  with  unsuspecting  hos- 
pitality. After  exploring  the  island  and  adjacent  shore, 
Cartier  moved  his  two  large  vessels  safely  into  the  deep 
water  of  the  river  now  known  as  the  St.  Charles,  and  in  his 
galiot  sailed  up  the  majestic  stream  to  the  chief  Indian 
settlement  on  the  Island  of  Hochelaga.  The  language  of 
its  inhabitants  proves  them  to  have  been  of  the  Huron 
family  of  tribes.  The  town  lay  at  the  foot  of  a  hill,  which 
he  climbed.-  As  he  reached  the  summit,  he  was  moved  to 
admiration  by  the  prospect  before  him  of  woods  and  waters 
and  mountains.  Imagination  presented  it  as  the  future 
emporium  of  inland  commerce,  and  the  metropolis  of  a 
prosperous  province :  filled  with  bright  anticipations,  he 
called  the  hill  Mont-Real,  and  time,  that  has  transferred 
the  name  to  the  island,  is  realizing  his  visions.  Cartier 
gathered  of  the  Indians  some  indistinct  account  of  the 
countries  now  contained  in  the  north  of  Vermont  and  New 
York ;  and  of  a  cataract  at  the  west  end  of  Lake  Ontario, 
and  of  the  expanse  of  waters  now  known  as  the  Bay  of 
Hudson.  Rejoining  his  ships,  the  winter,  rendered  fright- 
ful by  the  ravages  of  the  scurvy,  was  passed  where  they 
were  anchored.  At  the  approach  of  spring,  a  cross,  erected 
upon  land,  bore  a  shield  with  the  arms  of  his  country,  and 
an  inscription  declaring  Francis  to  be  the  rightful  king  of 
this  new-found  realm,  to  which  the  great  navigator 
himself  gave  the  name  of  New  France.  On  the  sixth 
of  July,  the  Breton  mariner  regained  St.  Malo. 

The  description  which  Cartier  gave  of  the  country 
bordering  on  the  St.  Lawrence  furnished  arguments 
against  attempting  a  colony.     The  intense  severity  of 
the  climate  terrified  even  the  inhabitants  of  the  north  of 
France ;  and  no  mines  of  silver  and  gold,  no  veins  abound- 
ing in  diam'onds  and  precious  stones,  had  been  promised  by 


16  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  I. 

the  faithful  narrative  of  the  voyage.     Three  or  four  years, 
therefore,  elapsed,  before  plans   of  co  omzation   weie   le- 
newed.    Yet    imagination  did  not  fiul  to   anticipate   the 
establishment  of  a  state  upon  the  fertile  banks  of  a  river 
which  surpassed  all  the  streams  of  Europe  in  grandeur,  and 
flowed  through  a  country  situated  between  nearly  the  same 
parallels  as  France.     Soon  after  a  short  peace  had  termi- 
nated the  third  desperate  struggle  between  Francis  I.  an- 
Charles  V.,  attention  to  America  was  again  awakened ;  tner 
were  not  wanting  men  at  court  who  deemed  it  unworthy 
a  gallant  nation  to  abandon  the  enterprise ;   and  m 
T15*°15   January,  1540,  a  nobleman  of  Picardy,  Francis  de  la 
''  Roque,  Lord  of  Roberval,  a  man  of  considerable  pro- 
vincial distinction,  sought  and  obtained  a  commission   as 
lord  of  the  unknown  Norimbega,  and  viceroy,  with  full 
regal  authority,  over  the  immense   territories  and   islands 
which  lie  near  the  gulf  or  along  the  river  St.  Lawrence. 
But  the  ambitious  nobleman  could  not  dispense  with  the 
services  of  the  former  naval  commander,  who   possessed 
the  confidence  of  the  king.     Cartier  was  accordingly 
Get.  17.   in  October  appointed  captain-general  and  chief  pilot 
of  the  expedition ;  he  was  directed  to  take  with  him 
persons  of  every  trade  and  art;  to  repair  to   the  newly 
discovered  territory,  and  to  dwell  there  with  the  natives. 
To  make  up  the  complement  of  his  men,  he  might  take  with 
him  from  the  prisons  whom  he  would,  excepting  only  those 
arrested  for  treason  or  counterfeiting  money.     The  enter- 
prise was  watched  with  jealousy  by  Spain. 
um  The  division  of  authority  between  Cartier  and  Ro- 

berval of  itself  defeated  the  enterprise.   Roberval  was 
ambitious  of  power ;  and  Cartier  desired  the  exclusive  honor 
of  discovery.    They  neither  embarked  in   company 
May  23.  nor  acted  in  concert.    Cartier  sailed  from  St.  Malo 
the  next  spring  after  the  date  of  his  commission ;  he 
arrived  at  the  scene  of  his  former  adventures,  and,  near  the 
site  of  Quebec,  built  a  fort  for  the  security  of  his  party ; 
but  no  considerable  advances  in  geographical  knowledge 
appear  to  have  been  made.    The  winter  passed  in 
1M2.      sullenness  and  gloom.    In  June  of  the  following  year, 


1603.       EARLY   VOYAGES.      FRENCH   SETTLEMENTS.        17 

he  and  his  ships  stole  away  and  returned  to  France,  just 
as  Roberval  arrived  with  a  considerable  re-enforcement. 
Unsustained  by  Carder,  Roberval  accomplished  no  more 
than  a  verification  of  previous  discoveries.  Remaining 
about  a  year  in  America,  he  abandoned  his  immense  vice- 
royalty.  Perhaps  the  expedition  on  its  return  entered  the 
Bay  of  Massachusetts. 

For  the  next  years,  no  further  discoveries  were  attempted 
by  the  government  of  a  nation  which  was  rent  by  civil  wars 
and  the  conflict  with  Calvinism.   Yet  the  number  and 
importance  of  the  fishing  stages  increased;  in  1578       ISTS. 
there  were  one  hundred  and  fifty  French  vessels  at 
Newfoundland,  and  voyages  for  traffic  with  the  natives  met 
with  success.     One  French  mariner,  before  1609,  had  made 
more  than  forty  voyages  to  the  American  coast. 

At  length,  when  under  the  mild  and  tolerant  reign  of 
Henry  IV.,  the  star  of   France  emerged  from  the  clouds 
which  had  long  eclipsed  her  glory,  the  purpose  of  found- 
ing a  French  empire  in  America  was  renewed,  and  in 
1598  an  ample  commission  was  issued  to  the  Marquis       1698. 
de  la  Roche,  a  nobleman  of  Brittany.     Yet  his  enter- 
prise entirely  failed.     Sweeping  the  prisons  of  France,  he 
established  their  tenants  on  the  desolate  Isle  of  Sable.  After 
some  years,  the  few  survivors  received  a  pardon,  and  were 
brought  back  to  their  native  country. 

The  prospect  of  gain  prompted  the  next  enterprise.    A 
monopoly  of  the  fur-trade,  with  an  ample  patent,  was 
obtained  by  Chauvin ;  and  Pontgrave",  a  merchant  of      ieoo. 
St.  Malo,  shared  the   traffic.     The  voyage  was  re-    ieoi-2. 
peated,  for  it  was  lucrative.     The  death  of  Chauvin 
prevented  his  settling  a  colony. 

A  firmer  hope  of  success  was  entertained,  when  in 
1603  a  company  of  merchants  of  Rouen  was  formed       1603. 
by  the  governor  of  Dieppe ;  and  Samuel  Champlain, 
of  Brouage,  an  able  marine  officer  and  a  man  of  science, 
was  selected  to  direct  the  expedition.     By  his  natural  dis- 
position,  "delighting  marvellously  in  these    enterprises," 
in  the  last  year  of  the  sixteenth  century  he  had  for  a  season 
engaged  in  the  service  of  Spain,  that  he  might  make  a 
VOL.  i.  2 


18  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP"  L 


vovase  to  regions  into  which 

f     TTo  wqq  in  Porto  Rico  and  &t.  J 
hcZ^:^h^Vf  Mexico,  and  —mi      ^ 


of  joining  the  two  <^  ed  a  clear 

became  the  father  of  New  1'r    .ce.  1  cautkras 

and  penetrating  ™testandmg'  J?  ^mobility  ;  inde- 
inquiry,  untiring  perseverance  ™*  f  e™  aJ0  ,nt  o£ 
faiJgable  activity,  with  fearle  ,  Courage  /h 
his  first  expedition  to  Canada  g  ves  pr 

' 


. 

1603.  turned  to  France,  an  exclusive  patent  was  issued  t 
NOV-8'  CaTvlist,the  able,  patriotic,  and  honest  De  Monte. 
The  sovereignty  of  Acadia  and  its  confines,  from  the  for- 
StlTthe^rty-^th  degree  of  latitude,  that  IB,  from 
Phtdelphia  to  b'eyona  Montreal;  a  still  wide*  g  monopoly 
of  the  fur-trade;  the  exclusive  control  of  the  soil,  gov 


ment,  and  trade;    freedom  of   religion 
emigrants,-these  were  the  privileges  which  his 

B  In  March,  1604,  two  ships  left  the  shores  of  France, 
1604-    not  to  return  till  a  permanent  settlement  should  \ 

made  in  America.  The  summer  glided  away,  while 
the  emigrants  trafficked  with  the  natives  and  explored  the 
coasts  The  harbor  called  Annapolis  after  its  conquest  by 
Queen  Anne,  an  excellent  harbor,  though  difficult  of  access, 
possessing  a  small  but  navigable  river,  which  abounded  m 
fish,  and  is  bordered  by  beautiful  meadows,  so  pleased  1  ou- 
trincourt,  a  leader  in  the  enterprise,  that  he  sued  for  a  grant 
of  it  from  De  Monts,  and,  naming  it  Port  Royal,  determined 

to  reside  there  with  his  family.    The  company  of  De 
1604.      Monts  made  their  first  attempt  at  a  settlement  on  the 

Island  of  St.  Croix,  at  the  mouth  of  the  river  of 

the  same  name.    Yet  the  island  was  so  ill  suited  to 
loos.      their  purposes  that,  in  spring,  1605,  they  removed  to 

Port  Royal. 


1615.       EARLY   VOYAGES.      FRENCH   SETTLEMENTS.         19 

For  an  agricultural  colony,  a  milder  climate  was  more 
desirable ;  in  view  of  a  settlement  at  the  south,  De 
Monts  in  the  same  year  explored  and  claimed  for       icos. 
France   the    rivers,   especially  the    Merrimack,   the 
coasts  and  the  bays  of  New  England,  as  far,  at  least,  as 
Cape  Cod.     The  numbers  and  hostility  of  the  savages  led 
him  to  delay  a  removal,  since  his  colonists  were  so  few. 
Yet  the  purpose  remained.     Thrice,  in  the  spring  of 
1606,  did  Dupont,  his  lieutenant,  attempt  to  complete       IGOG. 
the  discovery.     Twice  he  was  driven  back  by  adverse 
winds ;  and  at  the  third  attempt  his  vessel  was  wrecked.  Aug.  28. 
Poutrincourt,  who  had  visited  France,  and  returned 
with    supplies,  himself    renewed    the   design ;    but,  NOT.  14. 
meeting  with  disasters  among  the   shoals   of    Cape 
Cod,  he,  too,  returned  to  Port  Royal. 

The  possessions  of  Poutrincourt  were  in  1607  con-       leor. 
firmed  by  Henry  IV.;  the  apostolic   benediction  of 
the   Roman  pontiff  followed  families  which  exiled       leos. 
themselves  to  evangelize  infidels;   Mary  of  Medici 
herself  contributed  money  to  support  the  missions,  which 
the  Marchioness  de  Guercheville   protected ;  and  in 
1610,  by  a  compact  with  De  Biencourt,  the  propri-       leio. 
etary's  son,  the  order  of  the   Jesuits  was  enriched 
by  an  imposition  on  the  fisheries  and  fur-trade. 

The  arrival  of  Jesuit  priests  in  June,  1611,  was  sig-  j^l\2. 
nalized  by  conversions  among  the  natives.  In  the 
following  year,  De  Biencourt  and  Father  Biart  ex-  1612. 
plored  the  coast  as  far  as  the  Kennebec,  and  ascended 
that  river.  The  Canibas,  Algonkins  of  the  Abenaki  nations, 
touched  by  the  confiding  humanity  of  the  French,  listened 
reverently  to  the  message  of  redemption ;  and,  already  hos- 
tile towards  the  English  who  had  visited  their  coast,  the 
tribes  between  the  Penobscot  and  the  Kennebec  became  the 
allies  of  France,  and  were  cherished  as  a  barrier  against 
English  encroachments. 

A  French  colony  within  the  United  States  followed,       IGIS. 
under  the  auspices  of  De  Guercheville  and  Mary  of 
Medici ;  in  1613  the  rude  intrenchments  of  St.  Sauveur  were 
raised  by  De  Saussaye  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Mount  Desert 


20  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  1. 

Isle     The  conversion  of  the  heathen  was  the  motive  to 

he  settlement;  the  natives  venerated  Biart  as . .messeng  r 

from  Heaven ;  and  under  the  summer  sky,  round  a  cross  m 

the  centre  of  the  hamlet,  matins  and  vespers  were  regularly 

_  i j.  ^  JJ 


me  the  remonstrances  of 
effected  the  revocation  of  the  monopoly  of  De  Monts,  and  a 
company  of  merchants  of  Dieppe  and  St.  Malo  had  founded 
Quebec.    The  design  was  executed  by  Champlain,  who  aimed 
not  at  the  profits  of  trade,  but  at  the  glory  of  founding 
1608       a  state.    On  the  third  day  of  July,  1608,  he  raised  the 
white  flag  over  Quebec  ;  where  rude  cottages  were  soon 
framed,  a  few  fields  cleared,  and  one  or  two  gardens  planted. 
The  next  year,  the  bold  adventurer,  attended  by  two  Euro- 
peans, joined  a  mixed  party  of  Hurons  from  Montreal,  and 
Algonkins  from  Quebec,  in  an  expedition  against  the  Iro- 
quois,  or  Five  Nations,  in  the  north  of  New  York.     He 
ascended  the  Sorel,  and  explored  the  lake  which  bears  his 
name.    A  battle  with  the  Five  Nations  was  fought  near 
Ticonderoga. 

The  Huguenots  had  been  active  in  plans  of  colonization. 
The  death  of  Henry  IV.,  in  1610,  deprived  them  of  their 
protector.    Yet  the  zeal  of  De  Monts  survived,  and  he  quick- 
ened the  courage  of  Champlain.    After  the  short  supremacy 
of  Charles  de  Bourbon,  the  Prince  of  Conde,  an  avowed 
protector  of  the  Calvinists,  became  viceroy  of  New  France  ; 
through  his  intercession,  merchants  of  St.  Malo,  Rouen,  and 
La  Rochelle,  obtained  in  1615  a  colonial  patent  from  the 
king;  and  Champlain,  now  sure  of  success,  embarked  once 
more  for  the  New  World,  accompanied  by  monks  of  the 
order  of  Saint  Francis.    Again  he  invaded  the  territory  of  the 
Iroquois  in  New  York.    Wounded  and  repulsed,  and  desti- 
tute of  guides,  he  spent  the  first  winter  after  his  return  to 
America  in  the  country  of  the  Hurons  ;  and,  wander- 
leie.      ing  among  the  forests,  carried  his  language,  religion, 
and  influence  even  to  the  hamlets  of  Algonkins,  near 
Lake  Nipising. 

WIT  to        Religious  disputes  combined  with  commercial  jeal- 
ousies  to  check  the  progress  of  the  colony  ;  yet  in  the 


1620. 


1635.       EARLY  VOYAGES.      FRENCH   SETTLEMENTS.        21, 

summer  of  1620,  in  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  Mont-      1620. 
moreuci,  the  new  viceroy,  Champlain  began  a  fort. 
The  merchants  grudged  the  expense.     "It  is  not  best  to 
yield  to  the  passions  of  men,"  was  his  reply ;  "  they  sway 
but  for  a  season ;  it  is  a  duty  to  respect  the  future ; " 
and  in  1624  the  castle  St.  Louis,  so  long  the  place  of      1624. 
council  against  the  Iroquois  and  against  New  England, 
was  durably  founded  on  "  a  commanding  cliff." 

In  the  same  year  the  viceroyalty  was  transferred  to       1624. 
the  religious  enthusiast,  Henry  de  Levi ;  and  through 
his  influence,  in  1625,  just  a  year  after  Jesuits  had       1625. 
reached  the  sources  of  the  Ganges  and  Thibet,  the 
banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  received  priests  of  the  order, 
which  was  destined  to  carry  the  cross  to  Lake  Superior  and 
the  west. 

The  presence  of  Jesuits  and  Calvinists  led  to  dissensions. 
The  savages  caused  disquiet.     But  the  persevering  founder 
of   Quebec   appealed  to   the  Royal   Council  and  to 
Richelieu;  and,  though  disasters  intervened,  CHAM-      162T. 
PLAIN  successfully  established  the  authority  of  the 
French  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  in  the  territory 
which  became  his  country.    Dying  on  Christmas  Day, 
1635,  "  the  father  of  New  France  "  was  buried  in  the       1635. 
land  which  he  colonized.     The  humble  industry  of 
the  fishermen  of  Normandy  and  Brittany  promised  their 
country  the  acquisition  of  an  empire. 


22  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

SPANIAKDS   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

I  HAVE  traced  the  progress  of  events  which,  for  a  season, 
gave  to  France  the  uncertain  possession  of  Acadia  and 
Canada.  The  same  nation  laid  claim  to  undefined  regions 
at  the  southern  extremity  of  our  republic.  But  the  right  to 
Florida,  on  the  ground  of  discovery,  belonged  to  the  Spanish, 
and  was  successfully  asserted. 

Extraordinary  success  had  kindled  in  the  Spanish  nation 
an  equally  extraordinary  enthusiasm.  No  sooner  had  the 
New  World  revealed  itself  to  their  enterprise,  than  valiant 
men,  who  had  won  laurels  under  Ferdinand  among  the 
mountains  of  Andalusia,  sought  a  more  remote  career  of 
adventure.  The  Spanish  chivalry  of  the  ocean  despised  the 
range  of  Europe  as  too  narrow,  and  offering  to  their  extrav- 
agant ambition  nothing  beyond  mediocrity.  Avarice  and 
religious  zeal  were  strangely  blended;  and  the  heroes  of 
Spain  sailed  to  the  west,  as  if  they  had  been  bound  on  a  new 
crusade,  for  which  infinite  wealth  was  to  reward  their  piety. 
America  was  the  region  of  romance,  where  the  heated  im- 
agination could  indulge  in  the  boldest  delusions ;  where  the 
simple  natives  ignorantly  wore  the  most  precious  ornaments ; 
and,  by  the  side  of  the  clear  runs  of  water,  the  sands  spar- 
kled with  gold.  What  way  soever,  says  the  historian  of  the 
ocean,  the  Spaniards  are  called,  with  a  beck  only,  or  a  whis- 
pering voice,  to  any  thing  rising  above  water,  they  speedily 
prepare  themselves  to  fly,  and  forsake  certainties  under  the 
hope  of  more  brilliant  success.  To  carve  out  provinces  with 
the  sword ;  to  divide  the  wealth  of  empires ;  to  plunder  the 
accumulated  treasures  of  some  ancient  Indian  dynasty ;  to 
return  from  a  roving  expedition  with  a  crowd  of  enslaved 
captives  and  a  profusion  of  spoils,  —  soon  became  ordinary 
dreams.  Ease,  fortune,  life,  aU  were  squandered  in  the  pur- 


1513.  SPANIARDS   IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  23 

suit  where,  if  the  issue  was  uncertain,  success  was  sometimes 
obtained,  greater  than  the  boldest  imagination  had  dared  to 
anticipate.  Is  it  strange  that  these  adventurers  were  often 
superstitious  ?  Or  that  they  indulged  the  hope  that  the  laws 
of  nature  themselves  would  yield  to  the  desires  of  men  so 
fortunate  and  so  brave  ? 

The  youth  of  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon  had  been  passed  in 
military  service  in  Spain ;  and,  during  the  wars  in  Granada, 
he  had  shared  in  the  wild  exploits  of  predatory  valor.     No 
sooner  had  the  return  of  the  first  voyage  across  the  Atlantic 
given  an  assurance  of  a  New  World,  than  he  hastened  to 
share  in  the  dangers  and  the  fruits  of  adventure  in  America. 
He  was  a  fellow  voyager  of  Columbus  in  his  second 
expedition.      In  the  wars  of  Hispaniola,  he  proved      1493. 
himself  a  gallant  soldier ;  and  Ovando  had  rewarded 
him  with  the  government  of  the  eastern  province  of  that 
island.     From  the  hills  in  his  jurisdiction,  he  could  behold, 
across  the   clear  waters  of  a  placid   sea,  the  magnificent 
vegetation  of  Porto   Rico   through  the   transparent 
atmosphere  of  the  tropics.     A  visit  to  the  island       iws. 
stimulated  his  cupidity ;   and  Ponce  aspired  to  the 
government.     In  1509,  he  obtained  the  station :  in-      1509. 
ured  to  sanguinary  war,  he  was  inexorably  severe  in 
his  administration :   he  oppressed  the  natives ;  he  amassed 
wealth.     But  his  commission  as  governor  of  Porto   Rico 
conflicted  with  the  claims  of  the  family  of  Columbus ;  and 
policy,  as  well  as  justice,  required  his  removal. 

Yet  age  had  not  tempered  his  love  of  enterprise :  he 
longed  to  advance  his  fortunes  by  the  conquest  of  a  king- 
dom, and  to  retrieve  a  reputation  which  was  not  without 
a  blemish.  Besides,  the  veteran  soldier,  whose  cheeks  had 
been  furrowed  by  hard  service,  as  well  as  by  years,  had 
heard,  and  had  believed  the  tale,  of  a  fountain  which  pos- 
sessed virtues  to  renovate  the  life  of  those  who  should 
bathe  in  its  stream.  The  tradition  was  credited  in  Spain, 
not  by  all  the  people  and  the  court  only,  but  by  those  who 
were  distinguished  for  intelligence. 

On  the  third  of  March,  1513,  according  to  our  present    1513. 
rule  for  beginning  the  year,  Ponce  embarked  at  Porto  March  ^ 


24  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

Rico,  with  a  squadron  of  three  ships,  fitted  out  at  his  own 
expense,  for  his  voyage  to  the  fabled  land.    He  touched 

at  Guanahani;  he  sailed  among  the  Bahamas.  On 
M«327  Easter  Sunday,  which  the  Spaniards  call  Pascua 
'  Florida,  and  which  in  that  year  fell  on  the  twenty- 
seventh  of  March,  land  was  seen.  It  was  supposed  to  be 
an  island,  and  received  the  name  of  Florida,  from  the  day 
on  which  it  was  discovered,  and  from  the  aspect  of  the  for- 
ests, which  were  then  brilliant  with  the  bloom  of  spring. 
After  delay  from  bad  weather,  the  aged  soldier  was  able  to 
go  on  shore,  in  the  latitude  of  thirty  degrees  and  eight  min- 
utes ;  some  miles,  therefore,  to  the  north  of  St.  Augustine. 
The  territory  was  claimed  for  Spain.  Ponce  remained  for 
many  weeks  to  investigate  the  coast  which  he  had  discov- 
ered ;  though  the  currents  of  the  gulf-stream,  and  islands, 
between  which  the  channel  was  yet  unknown,  threatened 
shipwreck.  He  doubled  Cape  Florida ;  he  sailed  among  the 
group  which  he  named  Tortugas ;  and,  despairing  of  entire 
success,  he  returned  to  Porto  Rico,  leaving  a  trusty  fol- 
lower to  continue  the  research,  which  extended  far  towards 
the  Bay  of  Appalachee.  The  Indians  had  everywhere  dis- 
played determined  hostility.  Ponce  de  Leon  remained  an 
old  man;  but  Spanish  commerce  acquired  a  new  channel 
through  the  Gulf  of  Florida,  and  Spain  a  province,  which 
imagination  could  esteem  immeasurably  rich,  since  its  inte- 
rior was  unknown. 

The  government  of  Florida  was  the  reward  which  Ponce 
received  from  the  king  of  Spain ;  but  the  dignity  was  accom- 
panied with  the  onerous  condition  that  he  should  colonize 

the  country  which  he  was  appointed  to  rule.  Prepa- 
'Sad!0  rations  in  Spain,  and  an  expedition  against  the  Carib- 

bee  Indians,  delayed  his  return  to  Florida.  When, 
1621.  in  1521,  after  a  long  interval,  he  proceeded  with  two 

ships  to  take  possession  of  his  province  and  select  a 
site  for  a  colony,  his  company  was  attacked  by  the  Indians 
with  implacable  fury.  Many  Spaniards  were  killed ;  the  sur- 
vivors were  forced  to  hurry  to  their  ships ;  Ponce  de  Leon 
himself,  mortally  wounded  by  an  arrow,  returned  to  Cuba 
to  die.  So  ended  the  adventurer,  who  had  coveted  im- 


1519.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  25 


• 


measurable  wealth,  and  perpetual  youth.  The  discoverer 
of  Florida  desired  immortality  on  earth,  and  gained  its 
shadow. 

Meantime,  commerce  may  have  discovered  a  path  to 
Florida ;  and  in  1516,  Diego  Miruelo,  a  careless  sea-captain, 
Bailing  from  Havana,  is  said  to  have  approached  the  coast, 
and  trafficked  with  the  natives.  He  could  not  tell  distinctly 
in  what  harbor  he  had  anchored ;  he  brought  home  speci- 
mens of  gold,  obtained  in  exchange  for  toys ;  and  his  report 
swelled  the  rumors,  already  credited,  of  the  wealth  of  the 
country.  Florida  had  at  once  obtained  a  governor ;  it  now 
constituted  a  part  of  a  bishopric. 

The  expedition  of  Francisco  Fernandez,  of  Cordova,  leaving 
the  port  of  Havana,  and  sailing  west  by  south,  discov- 
ered in  1517  the  province  of  Yucatan  and  the  Bay  of       1517. 
Campeachy.     He  then  turned  his  prow  to  the  north ; 
but,  at  a  place  where  he  had  landed  for  supplies  of  water,  his 
company  was  suddenly  assailed,  and  he  himself  mortally 
wounded. 

In  1518,  the  pilot  whom  Fernandez  had  employed  1518. 
conducted  another  squadron  to  the  same  shores ;  and 
Grijalva,  the  commander  of  the  fleet,  explored  the  coast 
from  Yucatan  towards  Panuco.  The  masses  of  gold  which 
he  brought  back,  the  rumors  of  the  empire  of  Montezuma, 
its  magnificence  and  its  extent,  heedlessly  confirmed  by  the 
costly  presents  of  the  unsuspecting  natives,  were  sufficient 
to  inflame  the  coldest  imagination,  and  excited  the  enter- 
prise of  Cortes.  The  voyage  did  not  reach  beyond  the 
bounds  of  Mexico. 

At  that  tune  Francisco  de  Garay,  a  companion  of  Colum- 
bus on  his  second  voyage,  and  now  famed  for  his  opu- 
lence, was  the  governor  of  Jamaica.    In  the  year  1519,       1519. 
after  having  heard  of  the  richness  and  beauty  of  Yuca- 
tan, he  at  his  own  charge  sent  out  four  ships  well  equipped, 
and  with    good    pilots,  under    the    command   of  Alvarez 
Alonso  de  Pineda.     His  professed  object  was  the  search  for 
Borne  strait,  west  of  Florida,  which  was  not  yet  certainly 
known  to  form  a  part  of  the  continent.     The  strait  having 
been  sought  for  in  vain,  his  ships  turned  towards  the  west, 


26  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

• 

attentively  examining  the  ports,  rivers,  inhabitants,  and 
every  thing  else  that  seemed  worthy  of  remark ;  and  espe- 
cially noticing  the  vast  volume  of  water  brought  down  by 
one  very  large  river,  till  at  last  they  came  upon  the  track  of 
Cortes  near  Vera  Cruz.  Between  that  harbor  and  Tampico 
they  set  up  a  pillar  as  the  landmark  of  the  discoveries  of 
Garay.  More  than  eight  months  were  employed  in  thus 
exploring  three  hundred  leagues  of  the  coast,  and  taking 
possession  of  the  country  for  the  crown  of  Castile.  The 
carefully  drawn  map  of  the  pilots  showed  distinctly  the 
Mississippi,  which  in  this  earliest  authentic  trace  of  its  out- 
let bears  the  name  of  the  Espiritu  Santo.  The  account  of 
the  expedition  having  been  laid  before  Charles  V.,  a  royal 
edict  in  1521  granted  to  Garay  the  privilege  of  colonizing 
at  his  own  cost  the  region  which  he  had  made  known,  from 
a  point  south  of  Tampico  to  the  limit  of  Ponce  de  Leon, 
near  the  coast  of  Alabama.  But  Garay  thought  not  of  the 
Mississippi  and  its  valley :  he  coveted  access  to  the  wealth 
of  Mexico ;  and,  in  1523,  lost  fortune  and  life  ingloriously 
in  a  dispute  with  Cortes  for  the  government  of  the  country 
on  the  river  Panuco. 

^  A  voyage  for  slaves  brought  the  Spaniards  in  1520 

still  further  to  the  north.  A  company  of  seven,  of 
whom  the  most  distinguished  was  Lucas  Vasquez  de  Ayllon, 
fitted  out  two  slave  ships  from  St.  Domingo,  in  quest  of 
laborers  for  their  plantations  and  mines.  From  the  Bahama 
Islands,  they  passed  to  the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  which 
was  called  Chicora.  The  Combahee  River  received  the 
name  of  the  Jordan ;  the  name  of  St.  Helena,  given  to  a 
cape,  now  belongs  to  the  sound.  Gifts  were  interchanged 
with  the  natives,  and  the  strangers  received  with  confidence 
and  hospitality.  When  at  length  the  natives  returned  the 
visit  of  their  guests,  and  covered  the  decks  with  cheerful 
throngs,  the  ships  were  got  under  way  and  steered  for  St. 
Domingo.  The  crime  was  unprofitable:  in  one  of  the 
returning  ships,  many  of  the  captives  sickened  and  died- 
the  other  foundered  at  sea. 

Repairing  to  Spain,  Vasquez  boasted  of  his  expeditions, 
as  a  title  to  reward  ;  and  the  emperor,  Charles  V.,  acknowl- 


1525.  SPANIARDS  IX  THE  UNITED  STATES.  27 

edged  his  claim.  In  those  days,  the  Spanish  monarch 
conferred  a  kind  of  appointment  which  had  its  parallel  in 
Roman  history.  Countries  were  distributed  to  be  subdued ; 
and  Lucas  Vasquez  de  Ayllon,  after  long  entreaty,  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  conquest  of  Chicora. 

For  this  bolder  enterprise  the  undertaker  wasted 
his  fortune  in  preparations ;  in  1525,  his  largest  ship       1525. 
was  stranded  in  the  river  Jordan ;  many  of  his  men 
were  killed  by  the  natives;    and  he  himself  escaped  only 
to  suffer  from  the  consciousness  of  having  done  nothing 
worthy  of  honor.     Yet  it  may  be  that  ships,  sailing  under 
his  authority,  made  the  discovery  of  the   Chesapeake   and 
named  it  the  Bay  of  St.  Mary ;  and  perhaps  even  entered 
the   Bay  of   Delaware,  which  in   Spanish  geography  was 
called  St.  Christopher's. 

In  1524,  when  Cortes  was  able  to  pause  from  his  1524. 
success  in  Mexico,  he  proposed  to  solve  the  problem 
of  a  north-west  passage,  of  which  he  deemed  the  existence 
unquestionable.  But  his  project  of  simultaneous  voyages 
along  the  Pacific  and  the  Atlantic  coast  remained  but  the 
offer  of  loyalty. 

In  the  same  year,  Stephen  Gomez,  an  able  Portu-  1524. 
guese  seafarer,  who  had  deserted  Magellan  in  the 
very  gate  of  the  Pacific  to  return  to  Spain  by  way  of 
Africa,  solicited  the  Council  of  the  Indies  to  send  him  in 
search  of  a  strait  at  the  north,  between  the  land  of  the 
Bacallaos  and  Florida.  Peter  Martyr  said  at  once  that 
that  region  had  been  sufficiently  explored,  and  derided  his 
imaginings  as  frivolous  and  vain ;  but  a  majority  of 
the  suffrages  directed  the  search.  In  January,  1525,  1525. 
as  we  now  reckon,  Gomez  sailed  from  Corunna  with  a 
single  ship,  fitted  out  at  the  cost  of  the  emperor  king,  under 
instructions  to  seek  out  the  northern  passage  to  Cathay. 
On  the  southern  side  of  the  Bacallaos,  he  came  upon  an 
unknown  continent,  trending  to  the  west.  He  carefully 
examined  some  of  the  bays  of  New  England;  on  an  old 
Spanish  map,  that  portion  of  our  territory  is  marked  as  the 
Land  of  Gomez.  He  discovered  the  Hudson,  probably  on 
the  thirteenth  of  June,  for  that  is  the  day  of  Saint  Antony, 


28  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

whose  name  he  gave  to  the  river.  When  he  became  con- 
vinced  that  the  land  was  continuous,  he  freighted  his 
caravel  in  part  with  furs,  in  part  with  robust  Indians  for 
the  slave-market;  and  brought  it  back  within  ten  months 
from  his  embarkation,  having  found  neither  the  promised 
strait  nor  Cathay.  In  November  he  repaired  to  Toledo, 
where  he  rendered  his  report  to  the  youthful  emperor, 
Charles  V.  The  document  is  lost,  but  we  know  from  the 
Summary  of  Oviedo,  which  was  published  in  the 
^b7'  second  February  after  his  return,  that  his  examina- 
tion of  the  coast  reached  a  little  to  the  south  of  forty 
degrees  of  latitude.  If  these  vague  limits  are  to  be  strictly 
interpreted,  he  could  not  have  entered  the  Bay  of  Delaware, 
nor  the  Chesapeake.  The  Spaniards  scorned  to  repeat  their 
voyages  to  the  frozen  north  ;  in  the  south,  and  in  the  south 
only,  they  looked  for  "  great  and  exceeding  riches." 

But  neither  the  fondness  of  the  Spanish  monarch 
for  extending  his  domains,  nor  the  desire  of  the   no- 
bility for  new  governments,  nor  the  passion  of  adventurers 
to  go  in  search  of  wealth,  would  suffer  the   aban- 

1526.  donment  of  Florida;  and,  in  1526,  Pamphilo  de  Nar- 
vaez,  a  man  of  no  great  virtue  or  reputation,  obtained 

from  Charles  V.  the  contract  to  explore  and  reduce  all  the 
territory  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  river  Palrnas.  This  is 
he  who  had  been  sent  by  the  jealous  governor  of  Cuba  to 
take  Cortes  prisoner,  and  had  himself  been  easily  defeated, 
losing  an  eye,  and  deserted  by  his  own  troops.  "  Esteem  it 
great  good  fortune  that  you  have  taken  me  captive,"  said 
he  to  the  man  whom  he  had  declared  an  outlaw;  and 
Cortes  replied :  "  It  is  the  least  of  the  things  I  have  done  in 
Mexico." 

Narvaez,  who  was  both  rich  and  covetous,  hazarded  all 

his  treasure  on  the  conqiiest  of  his  province ;  and  sons  of 

Spanish  nobles  and  men  of  good  condition  flocked 

1527.  to   his   standard.    In   June,    1527,   his    expedition, 
in  which  Alvar  Nunez   Cabeza  de  Vaca  held  the 

second  place  as  treasurer,  left  the  Guadalquivir,  touched 
at  the  Island  of  San  Domingo,  and  during  the  following 
winter,  amidst  storms  and  losses,  passed  from  port  to  port 


1528.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES.  29 

on  the  southern  side  of  Cuba,  where  the  experienced  Mi- 
ruelo  was  engaged  as  his  pilot.      In  the   spring  of 
15'28,  he  doubled  Cape  San  Antonio,  and  was  stand-      1528. 
ing  in  for  Havana,  when  a  strong  south  wind  drove 
his  fleet  upon  the  American  coast,  and  on  the  fourteenth  of 
April,  the  day  before  Good  Friday,  he  anchored  in  or  near 
the  outlet  of  the  Bay  of  the  Cross,  now  Tampa  Bay. 

On  the  day  before  Easter  the  governor  landed,  and  in 
the  name  of  Spain  took  possession  of  Florida.  The  natives 
kept  aloof,  or,  if  they  drew  near,  marked  by  signs  their 
impatience  for  his  departure.  But  they  had  shown  him 
samples  of  gold,  which,  if  their  gestures  were  rightly  inter- 
preted, came  from  the  north.  Disregarding,  therefore,  the 
most  earnest  advice  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  he  directed  the 
ships  to  meet  him  at  a  harbor  with  which  the  pilot 
pretended  acquaintance ;  and  on  the  first  of  May,  May. 
mustering  three  hundred  men,  of  whom  forty  were 
mounted,  he  struck  into  the  interior  of  the  country.  Then 
for  the  first  time  the  floating  peninsula,  whose  low  sands, 
impregnated  with  lime,  just  lift  themselves  above  the  ocean 
on  foundations  laid  by  the  coral  worms,  a  country  notched 
with  bays  and  flooded  with  morasses,  without  hills,  yet  gush- 
ing with  transparent  fountains  and  watered  by  unfailing 
rivers,  was  traversed  by  white  men,  allured  onwards  by  the 
prospect  of  gold. 

The  wanderers,  as  they  passed  along,  gazed  on  trees 
astonishingly  high,  some  riven  from  the  top  by  lightning : 
the  pine ;  the  cypress ;  the  sweet  gum ;  the  slender,  grace- 
fully tall  palmetto ;  the  humbler  herbaceous  palm,  with  its 
chaplet  of  crenated  leaves  ;  the  majestic  magnolia,  glittering 
in  the  light ;  live  oaks  of  such  growth  that,  now  that  they 
are  vanishing  under  the  axe,  men  hardly  believe  the  tales 
of  their  greatness ;  multitudes  of  birds  of  untold  varieties ; 
and  quadrupeds  of  many  kinds,  among  them  the  opos- 
sum, then  noted  for  the  pocket  in  its  belly  to  house  its 
young ;  the  bear ;  more  than  one  kind  of  deer ;  the  panther, 
which  was  mistaken  for  the  lion ;  but  they  found  no  rich 
town,  nor  a  high  hill,  nor  gold.  When,  on  rafts  and 
by  swimming,  they  had  painfully  crossed  the  strong  June. 


30  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

current  of  the  Withlochoochee,  they  were  so  worn  away 
by  famine  as  to  give  infinite  thanks  to  God  for  lighting 
upon  a  field  of  unripe  maize.  Just  after  the  middle  of 
June,  they  encountered  the  Suwanee,  whose  wide,  deep, 
and  rapid  stream  delayed  them  till  they  could  build  a  large 
canoe.  Wading  through  swamps,  made  more  terrible  by 
immense  trunks  of  fallen  trees,  that  lay  rotting  in  the  water 
and  sheltered  the  few  but  skilful  native  archers,  on  the  day 
after  Saint  John's  they  came  in  sight  of  Appalach.ee,  where 
they  hnd  pictured  to  themselves  a  populous  town,  and  food, 
and  treasure,  and  found  only  a  hamlet  of  forty  wretched 
cabins. 

1528.          Here  they  remained  for  five  and  twenty  days,  scour- 
July.      ing  the  country  round  in  quest  of  silver  and  gold,  till, 
perishing  with  hunger  and  weakened  by  fierce  attacks,  they 
abandoned  all  hope  but  of  an  escape  from  a  region  so  remote 
and  malign.    Amidst  increasing  dangers,  they  went 
Aug.      onward  through  deep  lagoons  and  the  ruinous  forest 
in  search  of  the  sea,  till  they  came  upon  a  bay,  which 
they  called  Baia  de  Caballos,  and  which  now  forms  the 
harbor  of   St.  Mark's.    No  trace  could  be  found  of  their 
ships ;  sustaining  life,  therefore,  by  the  flesh  of  their  horses 
and  by  six  or  seven  hundred  bushels  of  maize  plundered 
from  the  Indians,  they  beat  their  stirrups,  spurs,  crossbows, 
and  other  implements  of  iron  into  saws,  axes,  and 
Sept.      nails ;  and  in  sixteen  days  finished  five  boats,  each  of 
twenty-two  cubits,  or  more  than  thirty  feet  in  length. 
In   calking  their   frail  craft,  films  of  the  palmetto  served 
for  oakum,  and  they  payed  the  seams  with  pitch  from  the 
nearest  pines.     For  rigging,  they  twisted  ropes  out  of  horse 
hair  and  the  fibrous  bark  of  the  palmetto  ;  their  shirts  were 
pieced  together  for  sails,  and  oars  were  shaped  out  of  savins ; 
skins  flayed  from  horses  served  for  water-bottles;  it  was 
difficult  in  the  deep  sand  to  find  large  stones  for  anchors  and 
ballast.    Thus  equipped,  on  the  twenty-second  of  Septem- 
ber about  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  all  of  the  party  whom 
famine,  autumnal  fevers,  fatigue,  and  the   arrows   of   the 
savage  bowmen  had  spared,  embarked  for  the  river  Palmas. 
Former  navigators  had  traced  the  outline  of  the  coast,  but 


1528.  SPANIARDS   IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  31 

among  the  voyagers  there  was  not  a  single  expert  mariner. 
One  shallop  was  commanded  by  Alonso  de  Castillo  and 
Andres  Dorantes,  another  by  Cabeza  de  Vaca.  The  gun- 
wales of  the  crowded  vessels  rose  but  a  hand-breadth  above 
the  water,  till,  after  creeping  for  seven  days  through  shallow 
sounds,  Cabeza  seized  five  canoes  of  the  natives,  out  of 
which  the  Spaniards  made  guard  boards  for  their 
five  boats.  During  thirty  days  more  they  kept  on  J^' 
their  way,  suffering  from  hunger  and  thirst,  imper- 
illed by  a  storm,  now  closely  following  the  shore,  now  avoid- 
ing savage  enemies  by  venturing  upon  the  sea.  On  the 
thirtieth  of  October,  at  the  hour  of  vespers,  Cabeza  de 
Vaca,  who  happened  to  lead  the  van,  discovered  one  of  the 
mouths  of  the  river  now  known  as  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
little  fleet  was  snugly  moored  among  islands  at  a  league 
from  the  stream,  which  brought  down  such  a  flood  that 
even  at  that  distance  the  water  was  sweet.  They  would 
have  entered  the  "  very  great  river "  in  search  of  fuel  to 
parch  their  corn,  but  were  baffled  by  the  force  of  the  cur- 
rent and  a  rising  north  wind.  A  mile  and  a  half  from  land 
they  sounded,  and  with  a  line  of  thirty  fathoms  could  find 
no  bottom.  In  the  night  following  a  second  day's  fruitless 
struggle  to  go  up  the  stream,  the  boats  were  sepa- 
rated; but  the  next  afternoon  Cabeza,  overtaking  NOV. 
and  passing  Narvaez,  who  chose  to  hug  the  land, 
struck  boldly  out  to  sea  in  the  wake  of  Castillo,  whom  he 
descried  ahead.  They  had  no  longer  an  adverse  current, 
and  in  that  region  the  prevailing  wind  is  from  the  east. 
For  four  days  the  half-famished  adventurers  kept  prosper- 
ously towards  the  west,  borne  along  by  their  rude  sails  and 
their  labor  at  the  oar.  All  the  fifth  of  November  an  east- 
erly storm  drove  them  forward ;  and,  oh  the  morning  of  the 
sixth,  the  boat  of  Cabeza  was  thrown  by  the  surf  on  the 
sands  of  an  island,  which  he  called  the  Isle  of  Malhado,  that 
is,  of  Misfortune.  Except  as  to  its  length,  his  description 
applies  to  Galveston ;  his  men  believed  themselves  not  far 
from  the  Panuco.  The  Indians  of  the  place  expressed 
sympathy  for  their  shipwreck  by  howls,  and  gave  them  food 
and  shelter.  Castillo  was  cast  away  a  little  further  to  the 


32  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

east;  but  he  and  his  company  were  saved  alive.  Of  the 
other  boats,  an  uncertain  story  reached  Cabeza;  that  one 
foundered  in  the  gulf;  that  the  crews  of  the  two  others 
gained  the  shore ;  that  Narvaez  was  afterwards  driven  out 
to  sea;  that  the  stranded  men  began  wandering  towards 
the  west;  and  that  all  of  them  but  one  perished  from 
hunger. 

Those  who  were  with  Cabeza  and  Castillo  gradually 
wasted  away  from  cold  and  want  and  despair ;  but  Cabeza 
de  Vaca,  Dorantes,  Castillo,  and  Estevanico,  a  blackamoor 
from  Barbary,  bore  up  against  every  ill,  and,  though  scat- 
tered among  various  tribes,  took  thought  for  each  other's 
welfare. 

The  brave  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  as  self-possessed  a  hero  as 
ever  graced  a  fiction,  fruitful  in  resources  and  never  wasting 
time  in  complaints  of  fate  or  fortune,  studied  the  habits  and 
the  languages  of  the  Indians ;  accustomed  himself  to  their 
modes  of  life;  peddled  little  articles  of  commerce  from 
tribe  to  tribe  in  the  interior  and  along  the  coast  for  forty  or 
fifty  leagues ;  and  won  fame  in  the  wilderness  as  a  med- 
1534.  icine  man  of  wonderful  gifts.  In  September,  1534, 
after  nearly  six  years'  captivity,  the  great  forerun- 
ner among  the  pathfinders  across  the  continent  inspired  the 
three  others  with  his  own  marvellous  fortitude,  and,  naked 
and  ignorant  of  the  way,  without  so  much  as  a  single  bit  of 
iron,  they  planned  their  escape.  Cabeza  has  left  an  artless 
account  of  his  recollections  of  the  journey ;  but  his  memory 
sometimes  called  up  incidents  out  of  their  place,  so  that  his 
narrative  is  confused.  He  pointed  his  course  far  inland, 
partly  because  the  nations  away  from  the  sea  were  more 
numerous  and  more  mild;  partly  that,  if  he  should  again 
come  among  Christians,  he  might  describe  the  land  and  its 
inhabitants.  Continuing  his  pilgrimage  through  more 
1i53G<!0  tnan  twenty  months,  sheltered  from  cold  first  by  deer- 
skins, then  by  buffalo  robes,  he  and  his  companions 
passed  through  Texas  as  far  north  as  the  Canadian  River, 
then  along  Indian  paths,  crossed  the  water-shed  to  the  val- 
ley of  the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte ;  and  borne  up  by  cheerful 
courage  against  hunger,  want  of  water  on  the  plains,  cold 


1539.  SPANIARDS  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  33 

and  weariness,  perils  from  beasts  and  perils  from  red  men, 
the  voyagers  went  from  town  to  town  in  New  Mexico, 
westward  and  still  to  the  west,  till  in  May,  1536,  they       1536. 
drew  near  the  Pacific  Ocean  at  the  village  of  San 
Miguel  in  Sonora.     From  that  place  they  were  escorted  by 
Spanish  soldiers  to  Compostella ;  and  all  the  way  to  the  city 
of  Mexico  they  were  entertained  as  public  guests. 

In  1530  an  Indian  slave  had  told  wonders  of  the  seven 
cities  of  Cibola,  the  Land  of  Buffaloes,  that  lay  at  the  north 
between  the  oceans  and  beyond  the  desert,  and  abounded 
in  silver  and  gold.  The  rumor  had  stimulated  Nuno  de 
Guzman,  when  president  of  New  Spain,  to  advance  coloni- 
zation as  far  as  Compostella  and  Guadalaxara:  but  the 
Indian  story-teller  died ;  Guzman  was  superseded ;  and  the 
seven  rich  cities  remained  hid. 

To  the  government  of  New  Galicia,  Antonio  de  Mendoza, 
the  new  viceroy,  had  named  Francisco  Vasquez  Co- 
ronado.  On  the  arrival  of  the  four  pioneers,  he  1538. 
hastened  to  Culiacan,  taking  with  him  Estevanico 
and  Franciscan  friars,  one  of  whom  was  Marcus  de 
Niza;  and  on  the  seventh  of  March,  1539,  he  de-  1539. 
spatched  them  under  special  instructions  from  Men- 
doza to  find  Cibola.  The  negro,  having  rapidly  hurried  on 
before  the  party,  provoked  the  natives  by  insolent  demands, 
and  was  killed.  On  the  twenty-second  of  'the  following 
September,  Niza  was  again  at  Mexico,  where  he  boasted 
that  he  had  been  as  far  as  Cibola,  though  he  had  not  dared 
to  enter  within  its  walls;  that,  with  its  terraced  stone 
houses  of  many  stories,  it  was  larger  and  richer  than 
Mexico ;  that  his  Indian  guides  gave  him  accounts  of  still 
more  opulent  towns.  The  priests  promulgated  in  their 
sermons  his  dazzling  report ;  the  Spaniards  in  New  Spain, 
trusting  implicitly  in  its  truth,  burned  to  subdue  the  vaunted 
provinces;  the  wise  and  prudent  Coronado,  parting  from 
his  lovely  young  wife  and  vast  possessions,  took  command 
of  the  enterprise ;  more  young  men  of  the  proudest  fami- 
lies in  Spain  rallied  under  his  banner  than  had  ever  acted 
together  in  America;  and  the  viceroy  himself,  sending 
Pedro  de  Alarcon  up  the  coast  with  two  ships  and  a 
VOL.  i.  8 


34  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

IMC.  tender  to  aid  the  land  party,  early  in  1540  went  in 
person  to  Compostella  to  review  the  expedition  be- 
fore its  departure  ;  to  distinguish  the  officers  by  his  cheering 
attention;  and  to  make  the  troops  swear  on  a  missal  con- 
tainincr  the  gospels,  to  maintain  implicit  obedience,  and 
never  °to  abandon  their  chief.  The  army  of  three  hundred 
Spaniards,  part  of  whom  were  mounted,  beginning  its  march 
with  flying  colors  and  boundless  expectations,  which  the 
more  trusty  information  collected  by  Melchior  Diaz  could 
not  repress,  was  escorted  by  the  viceroy  for  two  days  on  its 
way.  Never  had  so  chivalrous  adventurers  gone  forth  to 
hunt  the  wilderness  for  kingdoms ;  every  one  of  the  offi- 
cers seemed  fitted  to  lead  an  expedition  wherever  danger 
threatened  or  hope  allured.  From  Culiacan,  the  general, 
accompanied  by  fifty  horsemen,  a  few  foot  soldiers,  and  his 
nearest  friends,  went  in  advance  to  Sonora  and  so  to  the 
north. 

No  sooner  had  the  main  body,  with  lance  on  the  shoulder, 
carrying  provisions,  and  using  the  chargers  for  pack-horses, 
followed  Coronado  from  Sonora,  than  Melchior  Diaz,  select- 
in^  fi ve-and-twenty  men  from  the  garrison  left  at  that  place, 
set  off  towards  the  west  to  meet  Alarcon,  who  in  the  mean 
time  had  discovered  the  Colorado  of  the  west,  or,  as  he 
named  it,  the  river  of  "  Our  Lady  of  Good  Guidance."     Its 
rapid  stream  could  with  difficulty  be  stemmed  ;  but  hauled 
by  ropes,  or  favored  by  southerly  winds,  he  ascended  the 
river  twice  in  boats  before  the   end  of   September;  the 
second  time  for  a  distance  of  four  degrees,  or  eighty-five 
leagues,  nearly  a  hundred  miles,  therefore,  above  the  present 
boundary  of  the  United  States.    His  course  was  impeded 
by  sand-bars;   once,  at  least,  it  lay  between  rocky  cliffs. 
His  movements  were  watched  by  hundreds  of  natives,  who 
were  an  exceedingly  tall  race,  almost  naked,  the  men  bear- 
ing banners  and  armed  with  bows  and  arrows,  the  women 
cinctured  with  a  woof  of  painted  feathers  or  a  deerskin 
apron  ;  having  for  their  food  pumpkins,  beans,  flat  cakes  of 
maize  baked  in  ashes,  and  bread  made  of  the  pods  of  the 
tnezquite  tree.     Ornaments  hung  from  their  ears  and  pierced 
noses ;  and  the  warriors,  smeared  with  bright  colors,  wore 


1540.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  35 

crests  cut  out  of  deerskin.  Alarcon,  who  called  himself 
the  messenger  of  the  sun,  distributed  among  them  crosses ; 
took  formal  possession  of  the  country  for  Charles  V. ;  col- 
lected stories  of  remoter  tribes  that  were  said  to  speak  more 
than  twenty  different  languages ;  but,  hearing  nothing  of 
Coronado,  he  sailed  back  to  New  Spain,  having  ascertained 
that  Lower  California  is  not  an  island,  and  having  in  part 
explored  the  great  river  of  the  west.  Fifteen  leagues  above 
its  mouth,  Melchior  Diaz  found  a  letter  which  Alarcon  had 
deposited  under  a  tree,  announcing  his  discoveries  and  his 
return.  Failing  of  a  junction,  Diaz  went  up  the  stream  for 
five  or  six  days,  then  crossed  it  on  rafts,  and  examined  the 
country  that  stretched  towards  the  Pacific.  An  accidental 
wound  cost  him  his  life ;  his  party  returned  to  Sonora. 

Nearly  at  the  same  time,  the  Colorado  was  discovered  at 
a  point  much  further  to  the  north.  The  movements  of  the 
general  and  his  companions  were  rapid  and  daring.  Dis- 
appointment first  awaited  them  at  Chichilti-Calli,  the  village 
on  the  border  of  the  desert,  which  was  found  to  consist  of 
one  solitary  house,  built  of  red  earth,  without  a  roof  and 
in  ruins.  Having  in  fifteen  days  toiled  through  the  desert, 
they  came  upon  a  rivulet,  which,  from  the  reddish  color  of 
its  turbid  waters,  they  named  Vermilion ;  and  the  next 
morning,  about  the  eleventh  of  May,  they  reached  the  town 
of  Cibola,  which  the  natives  called  Zuni.  A  single  glance 
at  the  little  village,  built  upon  a  rocky  table,  that  rose  pre- 
cipitously over  the  sandy  soil,  revealed  its  poverty  and  the 
utter  falsehood  of  the  Franciscan's  report.  The  place,  to 
which  there  was  no  access  except  by  a  narrow  winding 
road,  contained  two  hundred  warriors  ;  but  in  less  than  an 
hour  it  yielded  to  the  impetuosity  of  the  Spaniards.  They 
found  there  provisions  which  were  much  wanted,  but  neither 
gold,  nor  precious  stones,  nor  rich  stuffs ;  and  Niza,  trem- 
bling for  his  life,  stole  back  to  New  Spain  with  the  first  mes- 
senger to  the  viceroy. 

As  the  other  cities  of  Cibola  were  scarcely  more  consid- 
erable than  Zuni,  Coronado  despatched  Pedro  de  Tobar 
with  a  party  of  horse  to  visit  the  province  of  Tusayan,  that 
is,  the  seven  towns  of  Moqui ;  and  he  soon  returned  with 


36  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

the  account  that  they  were  feeble  villages  of  poor  Indians, 
who  sought  peace  by  presents  of  skins,  mantles  of  cotton, 
and  maize.  On  his  return,  Garci  Lopez  de  Cardenas,  with 
twelve  others,  was  sent  on  the  bolder  enterprise  of  explor- 
ing the  course  of  the  rivers.  It  was  the  season  of  summer 
as  they  passed  the  Moqui  villages,  struck  across  the  desert, 
and  winding  for  twenty  days  through  volcanic  ruins  and 
arid  wastes,  dotted  only  with  dwarf  pines,  reached  an  upland 
plain,  through  which  the  waters  of  the  Colorado  have  cleft 
an  abyss  for  their  course.  By  the  party  who  first  gazed 
down  the  interminable  cliff,  the  precipice  was  described  as 
being  higher  than  the  side  of  the  highest  mountain ;  the 
broad,  surging  torrent  below  seemed  not  more  than  a  fathom 
wide.  Two  men  attempted  to  descend  into  the  terrible 
chasm,  but,  after  toiling  through  a  third  of  the  way  to  the 
bottom,  they  climbed  back,  saying  that  a  massive  block, 
which  from  the  summit  seemed  no  taller  than  a  man,  was 
higher  than  the  tower  of  the  cathedral  at  Seville.  In  no 
other  part  of  the  continent  has  there  been  found  so  deep  a 
gulf,  hollowed  out  by  a  river  for  its  channel,  where  nature 
lays  bare  the  processes  of  countless  time,  as  written  on  the 
rocky  bank  that  rises  precipitously  more  than  a  mile  in 
height.  The  party,  on  their  way  back  to  Zuni,  saw  where 
the  little  Colorado  at  two  leaps  clears  a  vertical  wall  of  a 
hundred  and  twenty  feet. 

Thus  far,  every  stream  found  by  the  Spaniards  flowed  to 
the  Gulf  of  California.  In  the  summer  of  1540,  before  the 
return  of  Cardenas,  Indians  appeared  at  Zuni  from  a  prov- 
ince called  Cicuye",  seventy  leagues  towards  the  east,  in  the 
country  of  cattle  whose  hair  was  soft  and  curling  like  wool. 
A  party  under  Hernando  Alvarado  went  with  the  returning 
Indians.  In  five  days  they  reached  Acoma,  which  was 
built  on  a  high  cliff,  accessible  only  by  a  ladder  of  steps  cut 
in  the^rock,  having  on  its  top  land  enough  to  grow  maize, 
and  cisterns  to  catch  the  rain  and  snow.  Here  the  Span- 
iards received  gifts  of  game,  deerskins,  bread,  and  maize. 

Three  other  days  brought  Alvarado  to  Tiguex,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Rio  del  Norte,  just  below  Albuquerque,  per- 
haps  not  far  from  Isletta ;  and  in  five  days  more  he  reached 


1540.  SPANIARDS  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  37 

Cicuye,  on  the  river  Pecos.  But  he  found  there  nothing  of 
note,  except  an  Indian  who  told  of  Quivira,  a  country  to 
the  north-east,  the  real  land  of  the  buffalo,  abounding  in 
gold  and  silver,  and  watered  by  tributaries  of  a  river  which 
was  two  leagues  wide. 

The  Spanish  camp  for  the  winter  was  established  near 
Tiguex ;  there  Alvarado  brought  the  Indian  who  professed 
to  know  the  way  to  Quivira;  there  Coronado  himself  ap- 
peared, after  a  tour  among  eight  more  southern  villages; 
and  there  his  army,  which  had  reached  Zuiii  without  loss, 
arrived  in  December,  suffering  on  its  march  from  storms  of 
snow  and  cold. 

The  people  who  had  thus  far  been  discovered  had  a  civil- 
ization intermediate  between  that  of  the  Mexicans  and  the 
tribes  of  hunters.  They  dwelt  in  fixed  places  of  abode, 
built  for  security  against  roving  hordes  of  savages,  on  tables 
of  land  that  spread  out  upon  steep  natural  castles  of  sand- 
stone. Each  house  was  large  enough  to  contain  three  or 
four  hundred  persons,  and  consisted  of  one  compact  parallel- 
ogram, raised  of  mud,  hardened  in  the  sun,  or  of  stones, 
cemented  by  a  mixture  of  ashes,  earth,  and  charcoal  for  lime ; 
usually  three  or  four  stories  high,  with  terraces,  inner  balco- 
nies and  a  court,  having  no  entrance  on  the  ground  floor; 
accessible  from  without  only  by  ladders,  which  in  case  of 
alarm  might  be  drawn  inside.  All  were  equal.  There  was 
no  king  or  chief  exercising  supreme  authority ;  no  caste  of 
nobles  or  priests  ;  no  human  sacrifices ;  no  cruel  rites  of 
superstition ;  no  serfs  or  class  of  laborers  or  slaves ;  they 
were  not  governed  much;  and  that  little  government  was 
in  the  hands  of  a  council  of  old  men.  A  subterranean 
heated  room  was  the  council -chamber.  They  had  no  hiero- 
glyphics like  the  Mexicans,  nor  calendar,  nor  astronomical 
knowledge.  Bows  and  arrows,  clubs  and  stones,  were  their 
weapons  of  defence;  they  were  not  sanguinary,  and  they 
never  feasted  on  their  captives.  Their  women  were  chaste 
and  modest ;  adultery  was  rare ;  polygamy  unknown.  Maize, 
beans,  pumpkins,  and,  it  would  seem,  a  species  of  native 
cotton,  were  cultivated ;  the  mezquite  tree  furnished  bread. 
The  dress  was  of  skins  or  cotton  mantles.  They  possessed 


88  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

nothing  which  could  gratify  avarice ;  the  promised  turquoises 
were  valueless  blue  stones. 

Unwilling  to  give  up  the  hope  of  discovering  an 
IMI.  opulent  country,  on  the  twenty-third  of  April,  1541, 
Coronado,  with  the  false  Indian  as  the  pilot  of  his 
detachment,  began  a  march  to  the  north-east.  Crossing  the 
track  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  in  the  valley  of  the  Canadian  River, 
they  came  in  nine  days  upon  plains,  which  seemed  to  have 
no  end,  and  where  countless  prairie  dogs  peered  on  them 
from  their  burrows.  Many  pools  of  water  were  found  im- 
pregnated with  salt,  and  bitter  to  the  taste.  The  wander- 
ings of  the  general,  extending  over  three  hundred  leagues, 
brought  him  among  the  Querechos,  hunters  of  the  bison, 
which  gave  them  food  and  clothing,  strings  to  'their  bows 
and  coverings  to  their  lodges.  They  had  dogs  to  carry  their 
tents  when  they  moved,  but  they  knew  of  no  wealth  but  the 
products  of  the  chase,  and  they  migrated  with  the  wild 
herds.  The  Spaniards  came  once  upon  a  prairie  that  was 
broken  neither  by  rocks  nor  hills,  nor  trees  nor  shrubs,  nor 
any  thing  which  could  arrest  the  eye  as  it  followed  the  sea 
of  grass  to  the  horizon.  In  the  hollow  ravines  there  were 
trees,  which  could  be  seen  only  by  approaching  the  steep 
bank ;  the  path  for  descending  to  the  water  was  marked  by 
the  tracks  of  the  bison.  Here  some  of  the  Teyas  nation  from 
the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte  were  found  hunting. 
The  governor,  sending  back  the  most  of  his  men,  with  a 
chosen  band  journeyed  on  for  forty-two  days  longer ;  having 
no  food  but  the  meat  of  buffaloes,  and  no  fuel  but  their  dung. 
At  last  he  reached  the  province,  which,  apparently  from 
some  confusion  of  names,  he  was  led  to  call  Quivira,  and 
which  lay  in  forty  degrees  north  latitude,  unless  he  may  have 
erred  one  or  two  degrees  in  his  observations.  It  was  well 
watered  by  brooks  and  rivers,  which  flowed  to  what  the 
Spaniards  then  called  the  Espiritu  Santo ;  the  soil  was  the 
best  strong,  black  mould,  and  bore  plums  like  those  of 
Spain,  nuts,  grapes,  and  excellent  mulberries.  The  inhab- 
itants were  savages,  having  no  culture  but  of  maize ;  no  metal 
but  copper ;  no  lodges  but  of  straw  or  of  bison  skins ;  no 
clothing  but  buffalo  robes.  Here,  on  the  bank  of  a  great 


1537.  SPANIARDS  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  39 

tributary  of  the  Mississippi,  a  cross  was  raised  with  this 
inscription  :  "  Thus  far  carae  Francisco  Vasquez  de  Coro- 
nado,  general  of  an  expedition." 

After  a  still  further  search  for  rich  kingdoms,  and  after 
the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte  had  been  explored  by  parties  from 
the  army  for  twenty  leagues  above  its  tributary,  the  Jemez, 
and  for  an  uncertain  distance  below  El  Paso,  the  general, 
returning  to  Tiguex,  on  the  twentieth  of  October, 
1541,  reported  to  Charles  V.  that,  poor  as  were  the       1511. 
villages  on  the  Great  River  of  the  North,  nothing  bet- 
ter had  been  found,  and  that  the  region  was  not  fit  to  be  col- 
onized.    Persuaded  that  no  discoveries  could  be  made  of 
lands  rich  in  gold  or  thickly  enough  settled  to  be 
worth  dividing  as  estates,  Coronado,  in  1542,  with  the       1542. 
hearty  concurrence  of  his  officers,  returned  to  New 
Spain.     His  failure  to  find  a  Northern  Peru  threw  him  out 
of  favor ;  yet  what  could  have  more  deserved  applause  than 
the  courage  and  skill  of  the  men  who  thoroughly  examined 
and  accurately  portrayed  the  country  north  of  Sonora,  from 
what  is  now  Kansas  on  the  one  side  to  the  chasm  of  the 
Colorado  on  the  other? 

The  expedition  from  Mexico  had  not  been  begun, 
when,  in  1537,  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  landing  in   Spam,       1537. 
addressed  to  the  imperial  Catholic  king  a  narrative 
of  his  adventures,  that  they  might  serve  as  a  guide  to  the 
men  who  should  go  under  the  royal  banners  to  conquer  those 
lands ;  and  the  tales  of  "  the  Columbus  of  the  continent " 
quickened  the  belief  that  the  country  between  the  river 
Palmas  and  the  Atlantic  was  the  richest  in  the  world. 

The  assertion  was  received  even  by  those  who  had  seen 
Mexico  and  Peru.  To  no  one  was  this  faith  more  disastrous 
than  to  Ferdinand  de  Soto,  of  Xeres.  He  had  been  the 
favorite  companion  of  Pizarro,  and  at  the  storming  of  Cusco 
had  surpassed  his  companions  in  arms.  He  assisted  in 
arresting  the  unhappy  Atahualpa,  and  shared  in  the  immense 
ransom  with  which  the  credulous  Inca  purchased  the  promise 
of  freedom.  Perceiving  the  angry  jealousies  of  the  con- 
querors of  Peru,  Soto  had  seasonably  withdrawn,  to  display 
liis  opulence  in  Spain,  and  to  solicit  advancement.  His  re- 


40  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

ception  was  triumphant ;  success  of  all  kinds  awaited  him. 
The  daughter  of  the  distinguished  nobleman,  under  whom 
he  had  first  served  as  a  poor  adventurer,  became  his  Avife ; 
and  the  special  favor  of  Charles  V.  invited  his  ambition  to 
prefer  a  large  request.  It  had  been  believed  that  the  depths 
of  the  continent  at  the  north  concealed  cities  as  magnificent 
and  temples  as  richly  endowed  as  any  which  had  yet  been 
plundered  within  the  tropics.  Soto  desired  to  rival  Cortes 
in  glory,  and  surpass  Pizarro  in  wealth.  Blinded  by  avarice 
and  the  love  of  power,  he  repaired  to  Valladolid,  and 
demanded  permission  to  conquer  Florida  at  his  own  cost; 
and  Charles  V.  readily  conceded  to  so  renowned  a  com- 
mander the  government  of  Cuba,  with  absolute  power  over 
the  immense  territory  to  which  the  name  of  Florida  was 
still  vaguely  applied. 

No  sooner  was  the  design  of  the  new  expedition  published 
in  Spain,  than  the  wildest  hopes  were  indulged.  How 
brilliant  must  be  the  prospect,  since  even  the  conqueror 
of  Peru  was  willing  to  hazard  his  fortune  and  the  greatness 
of  his  name !  Adventurers  assembled  as  volunteers,  many  of 
them  people  of  noble  birth  and  good  estates.  Houses  and 
vineyards,  lands  for  tillage,  and  rows  of  olive-trees  in  the 

Ajarrafe  of  Seville,  were  sold,  as  in  the  times  of  the 
1638.  crusades,  to  obtain  the  means  of  military  equipments. 

The  port  of  San  Lucar  of  Barrameda  was  crowded 
with  those  who  hastened  to  solicit  permission  to  share  in 
the  enterprise.  Even  soldiers  of  Portugal  desired  to  be 
enrolled  for  the  service.  A  muster  was  held:  the  Portu- 
guese glittered  in  burnished  armor ;  and  the  Castilians  were 
"very  gallant  with  silk  upon  silk."  From  the  numerous 
aspirants,  Soto  selected  for  his  companions  six  hundred  men 
in  the  bloom  of  life,  the  flower  of  the  peninsula ;  many  per- 
sons of  good  account,  who  had  sold  estates  for  their  equip- 
ments, were  obliged  to  remain  behind. 

The  fleet  sailed  as  gayly  as  if  on  a  holiday  excursion  of  a 
bridal  party.  In  Cuba,  the  precaution  was  used  to  send 
vessels  to  Florida  to  explore  a  harbor;  and  two  Indians, 
brought  captives  to  Havana,  invented  such  falsehoods  as 
they  perceived  would  be  acceptable.  They  conversed  by 


1539.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

signs ;  and  the  signs  were  interpreted  as  affirming  that 
Florida  abounded  in  gold.  The  news  spread  great  content- 
ment ;  Soto  and  his  troops  restlessly  longed  for  the  hour 
of  their  departure  to  the  conquest  of  "  the  richest  country 
which  had  yet  been  discovered."  The  infection  spread 
in  Cuba ;  and  Vasco  Porcallo,  an  aged  and  a  wealthy  man, 
lavished  his  fortune  in  magnificent  equipments. 

Soto  had  been  welcomed  in  Cuba  by  long  and 
brilliant  festivals  and  rejoicings.  In  May,  1539,  all  J^ 
preparations  were  completed ;  leaving  his  wife  to 
govern  the  island,  he  and  his  company,  full  of  unbounded 
expectations,  embarked  for  Florida;  and  in  about  a  fort- 
night his  fleet  anchored  in  the  Bay  of  Spiritu  Santo.  The 
soldiers  went  on  shore ;  the  horses,  between  two  and  three 
hundred  in  number,  were  disembarked.  Soto  would  listen 
to  no  augury  but  that  of  success ;  and,  like  Cortes,  he  re- 
fused to  retain  his  ships,  lest  they  should  tempt  to  a  retreat. 
Most  of  them  were  sent  to  Havana.  Porcallo  grew  alarmed. 
It  had  been  a  principal  object  with  him  to  obtain  slaves 
for  his  estates  and  mines  in  Cuba;  despairing  of  success, 
he  sailed  for  the  island  after  the  first  skirmish.  Soto  was 
indignant  at  the  desertion,  but  concealed  his  anger. 

And  now  began  the  nomadic  march  of  the  adventurers ; 
horsemen  and  infantry,  completely  armed ;  a  force  exceeding 
in  numbers  and  equipments  the  famous  expeditions  against 
the  empires  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  Every  thing  was  pro- 
vided that  experience  in  former  invasions  could  suggest : 
chains  for  captives,  and  the  instruments  of  a  forge ;  weapons 
of  all  kinds  then  in  use,  and  bloodhounds  as  auxiliaries 
against  the  natives ;  ample  stores  of  food,  and,  as  a  last 
resort,  a  drove  of  hogs,  which  would  soon  swarm  in  the 
favoring  climate,  where  the  forests  and  maize  furnished 
abundant  sustenance.  It  was  a  roving  expedition  of  gallant 
freebooters  in  quest  of  fortune.  It  was  a  romantic  stroll  of 
men  whom  avarice  rendered  ferocious,  through  unexplored 
regions,  over  unknown  paths,  wherever  rumor  might  point 
to  the  residence  of  some  chieftain  with  more  than  Peruvian 
wealth,  or  the  ill-interpreted  signs  of  the  ignorant  natives 
might  seem  to  promise  gold.  Often,  at  the  resting-places, 


42  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

groups  of  listless  adventurers  clustered  together  to  enjoy 
the  excitement  of  desperate  gaming.  Religious  zeal  was 
also  united  with  avarice  :  twelve  priests,  besides  other  eccle- 
siastics, accompanied  the  expedition.  Ornaments  for  the 
service  of  mass  were  provided ;  every  festival  was  to  be 
kept ;  every  religious  practice  to  be  observed.  As  the  troop 
marched  through  the  wilderness,  the  solemn  processions, 
•which  the  usages  of  the  church  enjoined,  were  scrupulously 
instituted.  Florida  was  to  become  Catholic  during  scenes 
of  robbery  and  carnage. 

The  wanderings  of  the  first  season,  from  June  to 

1530 

June  to  October,  brought  the  company  from  the  Bay  of  Spir- 
''  itu  Santo  to  the  home  of  the  Appalachians,  east  of 
the  Flint  River,  and  not  far  from  the  head  of  the  Bay  of 
Appalachee.  The  names  of  the  intermediate  places  cannot 
be  identified.  The  march  was  tedious  and  full  of  dangers. 
The  Indians  were  always  hostile ;  the  two  captives  of  the 
former  expedition  escaped ;  a  Spaniard,  who  had  been  kept 
in  slavery  from  the  time  of  Narvaez,  could  give  no  accounts 
of  any  land  where  there  was  silver  or  gold.  The  guides 
would  purposely  lead  the  Castilians  astray,  and  involve  them 
in  morasses;  even  though  death,  under  the  fangs  of  the 
bloodhounds,  was  the  certain  punishment.  The  whole  com- 
pany grew  dispirited,  and  desired  the  governor  to  return, 
since  the  region  opened  no  brilliant  prospects.  "  I  will 
not  turn  back,"  said  Soto,  "  till  I  have  seen  the  poverty  of 
the  country  with  my  own  eyes."  The  hostile  Indians,  who 
were  taken  prisoners,  were  in  part  put  to  death,  in  part 
enslaved.  These  were  led  in  chains,  with  iron  collars  about 
their  necks;  their  service  was  to  grind  the  maize  and  to 
carry  the  baggage.  An  exploring  party  discovered  Ochus, 
the  harbor  of  Pensacola ;  and  a  message  was  transmitted  to 
Cuba,  desiring  that  in  the  ensuing  year  supplies  for  the  expe- 
dition might  be  sent  to  that  place. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  the  following  year,  the  wan- 

M^°3.    derers  renewed  their  march,  with  an  Indian  guide, 

who  promised  to  lead  the  way  to  a  country  governed, 

it  was  said,  by  a  woman,  and  where  gold  so  abounded  that 

the  art  of  melting  and  refining  it  was  understood.     He 


1540.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  43 

described  the  process  so  well  that  the  credulous  Spaniards 
took  heart.  The  Indian  appears  to  have  pointed  towards 
the  srold  region  of  North  Carolina.  The  adventurers,  there- 

O  O 

fore,  eagerly  hastened  to  the  north-east ;  they  passed  the 
Alatamaha;  they  admired  the  fertile  valleys  of  Georgia, 
rich,  productive,  and  full  of  good  rivers.  They  crossed  a 
northern  tributary  of  the  Alatamaha  and  a  southern  branch  of 
the  Ogeechee ;  and,  at  length,  came  upon  the  Ogeechee 
itself,  which,  in  April,  flowed  with  a  full  channel  and  J^rli. 
a  strong  current.  Much  of  the  time  the  Spaniards 
were  in  wild  solitudes ;  they  suffered  for  want  of  salt  and 
of  meat.  Their  Indian  guide  affected  madness ;  but  "  they 
said  a  gospel  over  him,  and  the  fit  left  him."  Again  he 
involved  them  in  pathless  wilds  ;  and  then  he  would  have 
been  torn  in  pieces  by  the  dogs,  if  he  had  not  still  been 
needed  to  assist  the  interpreter.  Of  four  Indian  captives, 
who  were  questioned,  one  bluntly  answered,  he  knew  no 
country  such  as  they  described ;  the  governor  ordered  him 
to  be  burnt,  for  what  was  esteemed  his  falsehood.  The 
sight  of  the  execution  quickened  the  invention  of  his  com- 
panions; and  the  Spaniards  made  their  way  to  the  small 
Indian  settlement  of  Cutifa-Chiqui.  A  dagger  and  a  rosary 
were  found  here ;  the  story  of  the  Indians  traced  them  to 
the  expedition  of  Vasquez  de  Ayllon ;  and  a  two  days' 
journey  would  reach,  it  was  believed,  the  harbor  of  St. 
Helena.  The  soldiers  thought  of  home,  and  desired  either 
to  make  a  settlement  on  the  fruitful  soil  around  them,  or 
to  return.  The  governor  was  "a  stern  man,  and  of  few 
words."  Willingly  hearing  the  opinions  of  others,  he  was 
inflexible,  when  he  had  once  declared  his  own  mind ;  and 
all  his  followers,  "  condescending  to  his  will,"  continued  to 
indulge  delusive  hopes. 

In  May  the  direction  of  the  march  was  to  the  Mays, 
north ;  to  the  comparatively  sterile  country  of  the 
Cherokees,  and  in  part  through  a  district  in  which  gold  is 
now  found.  The  inhabitants  were  poor,  but  gentle ;  they 
offered  such  presents  as  their  habits  of  life  permitted, — 
deerskins  and  wild  hens.  Soto  could  hardly  have  crossed 
the  mountains,  so  as  to  enter  the  basin  of  the  Tennessee 


44  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

River;  it  seems,  rather,  that  he  passed  from  the  head- 
waters of  the  Savannah  or  the  Chattahoochee  to  the  head- 
waters of  the  Coosa.  The  name  of  Canasauga,  a  village  at 
which  he  halted,  is  still  given  to  a  branch  of  the^  latter 
stream.  For  several  months,  the  Spaniards  were  in  the 
valleys  which  send  their  waters  to  the  Bay  of  Mobile. 
Chiaha  was  an  island  distant  about  a  hundred  miles  from 
Canasauga.  An  exploring  party  which  was  sent  to  the 
noi-th  were  appalled  by  the  aspect  of  the  Appalachian  chain, 
and  pronounced  the  mountains  impassable.  They  had  looked 
for  mines  of  copper  and  gold ;  and  their  only  plunder  was 
a  buffalo  robe. 

IMG.  In  the  latter  part  of  July,  the  Spaniards  were  at 
July  26.  coosa.  jn  the  course  of  the  season,  they  had  occa- 
sion to  praise  the  wild  grape  of  the  country,  the  same,  per- 
haps, which  has  since  been  thought  worthy  of  culture,  and 
to  admire  the  luxuriant  growth  of  maize,  which  was  spring- 
ing from  the  fertile  plains  of  Alabama.  A  southerly 
Oct.  is.  direction  led  the  train  to  Tuscaloosa ;  in  October  the 
wanderers  reached  a  considerable  town  on  the  Ala- 
bama, above  the  junction  of  the  Tombigbee,  and  about  one 
hundred  miles,  or  six  days'  journey,  from  Pensacola.  The 
village  was  called  Mavilla,  or  Mobile,  a  name  which  is  now 
applied  not  to  the  bay  only,  but  to  the  river,  after  the 
union  of  its  numerous  tributaries.  The  Spaniards,  tired  of 
lodging  in  the  fields,  desired  to  occupy  the  cabins ;  the 
Indians  rose  to  resist  the  invaders,  whom  they  distrusted 
and  feared.  A  battle  ensued ;  the  terrors  of  cavalry  gave 
the  victory  to  the  Spaniards.  I  know  not  if  a  more  bloody 
Indian  fight  ever  occurred  on  the  soil  of  the  United  States  : 
the  town  was  set  on  fire ;  and  a  witness  of  the  scene,  doubt- 
less greatly  exaggerating  the  loss,  relates  that  two  thousand 
five  hundred  Indians  were  slain,  suffocated,  or  burnt.  They 
had  fought  with  desperate  courage ;  and,  but  for  the  flames, 
which  consumed  their  light  and  dense  settlements,  they 
would  have  effectually  repulsed  the  invaders.  "  Of  the 
Christians,  eighteen  died;"  one  hundred  and  fifty  were 
wounded  with  arrows ;  twelve  horses  were  slain,  and  seventy 
hurt.  The  flames  had  not  spared  the  baggage  of  the 


1541.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  45 

Spaniards;  it  was  within  the  town,  and  was  entirely  con- 
sumed. 

Meanwhile,  ships  from  Cuba  had  arrived  at  Ochus,  now 
Pensacola.  Soto  had  made  no  important  discoveries;  he 
had  gathered  no  tempting  stores  of  silver  and  gold;  the 
fires  of  Mobile  had  consumed  his  curious  collections ;  with 
resolute  pride  he  determined  to  send  no  news  of  himself, 
until,  like  Cortes,  he  had  found  some  rich  country. 

The  region  above  the  mouth  of  the  Mobile  was  populous 
and  hostile,  and  yet  too  poor  to  promise   plunder. 
Soto  retreated  towards  the  north ;  his  troops  already  Nlwo- 
reduced,  by  sickness  and  warfare,  to  five  hundred 
men.      A  month   passed   away  before    he    reached 
winter-quarters    at    Chicac.a,   a    small   town   in  the  Dec.  IT. 
country  of  the  Chickasaws,  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
state  of  Mississippi;  probably  on  the  western  bank  of  the 
Yazoo.     The  weather  was  severe,  and  snow  fell ;  but  maize 
was  yet  standing  in  the  open  fields.     The  Spaniards 
were  able  to  gather  a  supply  of  food,  and  the  deserted       IML 
,  town,  with  such  rude  cabins  as  they  added,  afforded 
them  shelter  through  the  winter.     Yet  no  mines  of  Peru 
were  discovered;   no  ornaments  of  gold  adorned  the  rude 
savages ;  their  wealth  was  the  harvest  of  corn,  and  wigwams 
were  their  only  palaces;  they  were  poor  and  inde- 
pendent ;  they  were  hardy  and  loved  freedom.    When   March, 
spring  opened,  Soto,  as  he  had  usually  done  with 
other  tribes,  demanded  of  the  chieftain  of  the  Chickasaws 
two  hundred  men  to  carry  the  burdens  of  his  company. 
The  Indians  hesitated.     Human  nature  is  the  same  in  every 
age  and  in  every  climate.     Like  the  inhabitants  of  Athens 
in  the  days  of  Themistocles,  or  those  of  Moscow  of  a  recent 
day,  the  Chickasaws,  unwilling  to  see  strangers  and  enemies 
occupy  their  homes,  in  the  dead  of   night,  deceiving  the 
sentinels,  set  fire  to  their  own  village,  in  which  the  Castilians 
were  encamped.     On  a  sudden,  half   the  houses  were  in 
flames;    and    the    loudest  notes   of    the  war-whoop   rung 
through  the  air.     The  Indians,  could  they  have  acted  with 
calm  bravery,  might  have  gained  an  easy  and  entire  victory ; 
but  they  trembled  at  their  own  success,  and  feared  the  un- 


46  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

equal  battle  against  weapons  of  steel.  Many  of  the  horses 
had  broken  loose ;  these,  terrified  and  without  riders,  roamed 
through  the  forest,  of  which  the  burning  village  illuminated 
the  shades,  and  seemed  to  the  ignorant  natives  the  gathering 
of  hostile  squadrons.  Others  of  the  horses  perished  in  the 
stables;  most  of  the  swine  were  consumed;  eleven  of  the 
Christians  were  burnt,  or  lost  their  lives  in  the  tumult. 
The  clothes  which  had  been  saved  from  the  fires  of  Mobile 
were  destroyed,  and  the  Spaniards,  now  as  naked  as  the 
natives,  suffered  from  the  cold.  Weapons  and  equipments 
were  consumed  or  spoiled.  Had  the  Indians  made  a  reso- 
lute onset  on  this  night  or  the  next,  the  Spaniards  would 
have  been  unable  to  resist.  But,  in  a  respite  of  a  week, 
forges  were  erected,  swords  newly  tempered,  and  good 

ashen  lances  were  made,  equal  to  the  best  of  Biscay. 
M^is.  When  the  Indians  attacked  the  camp,  they  found 

"  the  Christians  "  prepared. 

The  disasters  which  had  been  encountered   served   only 
to  confirm  the    obstinacy  of  the   governor,   by  wounding 
his  pride.     Should   he,  who  had   promised   greater   booty* 
than  Mexico  or  Peru  had  yielded,  now  return  as  a  defeated 

fugitive,  so  naked  that  his  troops  were  clad  only  in 
Apr.  25.  skins  and  mats  of  ivy  ?  The  search  for  some  wealthy 

region  was  renewed ;  the  caravan  marched  still  fur- 
ther to  the  west.  For  seven  days  it  struggled  through  a 
wilderness  of  forests  and  marshes ;  and,  at  length,  came  to 
Indian  settlements  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Mississippi.  The 
lapse  of  nearly  three  centuries  has  not  changed  its  char- 
acter ;  it  was  then  described  as  more  than  a  mile  broad ; 
flowing  with  a  strong  current,  and  by  its  weight  forcing 
a  channel  of  great  depth.  In  the  water,  which  was  always 
muddy,  trees  and  timber  were  continually  floating  down. 

The  Spaniards  were  guided  by  natives  to  one  of  the 
usual  crossing-places,  probably  at  the  lowest  Chickasaw 
bluff,  not  far  from  the  thirty-fifth  parallel  of  latitude.  The 
arrival  of  the  strangers  awakened  curiosity  and  fear.  A 
multitude  of  people  from  the  western  banks  of  the  river, 
painted  and  gayly  decorated  with  great  plumes  of  white 
feathers,  the  warriors  standing  in  rows  with  bow  and  arrows 


1541.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  47 

in  their  hands,  the  chieftains  sitting  under  awnings  as 
magnificent  as  the  artless  manufactures  of  the  natives  could 
weave,  came  rowing  down  the  stream  in  a  fleet  of  two  hun- 
dred canoes,  seeming  to  the  admiring  Spaniards  "  like  a  fair 
army  of  galleys."  They  brought  gifts  of  fish,  and  loaves 
made  of  the  fruit  of  the  persimmon.  At  first  they  showed 
some  desire  to  offer  resistance ;  but,  soon  becoming  conscious 
of  their  relative  weakness,  they  ceased  to  defy  an  enemy 
Avho  could  not  be  overcome,  and  suffered  injury  without  at- 
tempting open  retaliation.  The  boats  of  the  natives  were 
too  weak  to  transport  horses ;  almost  a  month  expired  before 
barges,  large  enough  to  hold  three  horsemen  each, 
were  constructed  for  crossing  the  river.  At  length,  ^l- 
the  Spaniards  embarked  upon  the  Mississippi,  and 
were  borne  to  its  western  bank. 

Dakota  tribes  then  occupied  the  country  south-west  June, 
of  the  Missouri ;  Soto  had  heard  its  praises ;  he  be- 
lieved in  its  vicinity  to  mineral  wealth ;  and  he  determined 
to  visit  its  towns.  In  ascending  the  Mississippi,  the  party 
was  often  obliged  to  wade  through  morasses ;  at  length  they 
came,  as  it  would  seem,  upon  the  district  of  Little  Prairie, 
and  the  dry  and  elevated  lands  which  extend  towards  New 
Madrid.  Here  the  Spaniards  were  adored  as  children  of 
the  sun,  and  the  blind  were  brought  into  their  presence,  to 
be  healed  by  the  sons  of  light.  "  Pray  only  to  God,  who  is 
in  heaven,  for  whatsoever  ye  need,"  said  Soto  in  reply. 
The  wild  fruits  of  that  region  were  abundant;  the  pecan 
nut,  the  mulberry,  and  two  kinds  of  wild  plums,  furnished 
the  natives  with  articles  of  food.  At  Pacaha,  the  T 

.      June  19 

northernmost  point  which  Soto  reached  near  the  Mis-     to 
sissippi,  he  remained  forty  days.     The  spot  cannot  be 
identified ;    but  the  accounts   of    the   amusements   of    the 
Spaniards  confirm  the  truth  of  the  narrative  of  their  ram- 
blings.     Fish  were  taken,  such  as  are  now  found  in  the  fresh 
waters  of  that  region ;   one  of  them,  the  spade  fish,  the 
strangest  and  most   whimsical   production   of   the   muddy 
streams  of  the  west,  so  rare  that,  even  now,  it  is  hardly  to 
be  found  in  any  museum,  is  accurately  described  by  the  best 
historian  of  the  expedition. 


48  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

An  exploring  party,  which  was  sent  to  examine  the 
regions  to  the  north,  reported  that  they  were  almost  a 
desert.  The  country  still  nearer  the  Missouri  was  said  by 
the  Indians  to  be  thinly  inhabited;  the  bison  abounded 
there  so  much  that  no  maize  could  be  cultivated ;  and  the 
few  inhabitants  were  hunters.  Soto  turned,  there- 
^L  fore,  to  the  west  and  north-west,  and  plunged  still 
more  deeply  into  the  interior  of  the  continent.  The 
highlands  of  White  River,  more  than  two  hundred  miles 
from  the  Mississippi,  were  probably  the  limit  of  his  ramble 
in  this  direction.  The  mountains  offered  neither  gems  nor 
gold;  and  the  disappointed  adventurers  marched  to  the 
south.  They  passed  through  a  succession  of  towns,  of 
which  the  position  cannot  be  fixed ;  till,  at  length,  we  find 
them  among  the  Tunicas,  near  the  hot  springs  and  saline 
tributaries  of  the  "Washita.  It  was  at  Autiamque,  a  town 
on  the  same  river,  that  they  passed  the  winter ;  they  had 
arrived  at  the  settlement  through  the  country  of  the  Kap- 
paws. 

The  native  tribes,  everywhere  on  the  route,  were  found 
in  a  state  of  civilization  beyond  that  of  nomadic  hordes. 
They  were  an  agricultural  people,  with  fixed  places  of 
abode,  and  subsisted  upon  the  produce  of  the  fields,  more 
than  upon  the  chase.  Ignorant  of  the  arts  of  life,  they 
could  offer  no  resistance  to  their  unwelcome  visitors ;  the 
bow  and  arrow  were  the  most  effective  weapons  with  which 
they  were  acquainted.  They  seem  not  to  have  been  turbu- 
lent or  quarrelsome ;  but  as  the  population  was  moderate, 
and  the  earth  fruitful,  the  tribes  were  not  accustomed  to 
contend  with  each  other  for  the  possession  of  territories. 
Their  dress  was,  in  part,  mats  wrought  of  ivy  and  bulrushes, 
of  the  bark  and  lint  of  trees;  in  cold  weather,  they  wore 
mantles  woven  of  feathers.  The  settlements  were  by  tribes ; 
each  tribe  occupied  what  the  Spaniards  called  a  province ; 
their  villages  were  generally  near  together,  but  were  com- 
posed of  few  habitations.  The  Spaniards  treated  them 
with  no  other  forbearance  than  their  own  selfishness  de- 
manded, and  enslaved  such  as  offended,  employino-  them  as 
porters  and  guides.  On  a  slight  suspicion,  they  would  cut 


1542.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  49 

off  the  hands  of  numbers  of  the  natives,  for  punishment  or 
intimidation ;  the  young  cavaliers,  from  desire  of  seeming 
valiant,  took  delight  in  cruelties  and  carnage.  The  guide 
who  was  unsuccessful,  or  who  purposely  led  them  away  from 
the  settlements  of  his  tribe,  would  be  seized  and  thrown  to 
the  hounds.  Sometimes  a  native  was  condemned  to  the 
flames.  Any  trifling  consideration  of  safety  would  induce 
the  governor  to  set  fire  to  a  hamlet.  The  happiness,  the 
life,  and  the  rights  of  the  Indians,  were  held  of  no  account. 
The  approach  of  the  Spaniards  was  heard  with  dismay; 
and  their  departure  hastened  by  the  suggestion  of  wealthier 
lands  at  a  distance. 

In  the  spring  of  the  following  year,  Soto  deter-  1542. 
mined  to  descend  the  Washita  to  its  junction,  and  to  Mar-  6* 
get  tidings  of  the  sea.  As  he  advanced,  he  was  soon  lost 
amidst  the  bayous  and  marshes  which  are  found  along  the 
Red  River  and  its  tributaries.  Near  the  Mississippi,  he 
came  upon  the  country  of  Nilco,  which  was  well  peopled. 
The  river  was  there  larger  than  the  Guadalquivir  at 
Seville.  At  last,  he  arrived  at  the  province  where  Apr.  17. 
the  Washita,  already  united  with  the  Red  River, 
enters  the  Mississippi.  The  province  was  called  Gua- 
choya.  Soto  anxiously  inquired  the  distance  to  the  sea :  the 
chieftain  of  Guachoya  could  not  tell.  Were  there  settle- 
ments extending  along  the  river  to  its  mouth?  It  was 
answered  that  its  lower  banks  were  an  uninhabited  waste. 
Unwilling  to  believe  so  disheartening  a  tale,  Soto  sent  one 
of  his  men,  with  eight  horsemen,  to  descend  the  banks  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  explore  the  country.  They  travelled 
eight  days,  and  were  able  to  advance  not  much  more  than 
thirty  miles,  they  were  so  delayed  by  the  frequent  bayous, 
the  impassable  canebrakes,  and  the  dense  woods.  The 
governor  received  the  intelligence  with  anxiety.  His  horses 
and  men  were  dying  around  him,  so  that  the  natives  were 
becoming  dangerous  enemies.  He  attempted  to  overawe  a 
tribe  of  Indians  near  Natchez  by  claiming  a  supernatural 
birth,  and  demanding  obedience  and  tribute.  "  You  say 
you  are  the  child  of  the  sun,"  replied  the  undaunted  chief ; 
"  dry  up  the  river,  and  I  will  believe  you.  Do  you  desire 

VOL.  I.  4 


50  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

to  see  me  ?  Visit  the  town  where  I  dwell.  If  you  come  in 
peace,  I  will  receive  you  with  special  good-will ;  if  in  war,  I 
will  not  shrink  one  foot  back."  But  Soto  was  no  longer 
able  to  abate  the  confidence  or  punish  the  temerity  of  the 
natives.  His  stubborn  pride  was  changed  by  long  disap- 
pointments into  a  wasting  melancholy ;  and  his  health  sunk 
rapidly  and  entirely  under  a  conflict  of  emotions.  A  malig- 
nant fever  ensued,  during  which  he  had  little  comfort,  and 
was  neither  visited  nor  attended  as  the  last  hours  of  life 
demand.  Believing  his  death  near  at  hand,  he  held  the 
last  interview  with  his  faithful  followers ;  and,  yielding  to 
the  wishes  of  his  companions,  who  obeyed  him  to  the 
M^22i  en<^'  he  name(i  a  successor.  On  the  next  day  he 
died.  Thus  perished  Ferdinand  de  Soto,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Cuba,  the  successful  associate  of  Pizarro.  His 
miserable  end  was  the  more  observed,  from  the  greatness  of 
his  former  prosperity.  His  soldiers  pronounced  his  eulogy 
by  grieving  for  their  loss  ;  the  priests  chanted  over  his  body 
the  first  requiems  that  were  ever  heard  on  the  waters  of  the 
Mississippi.  To  conceal  his  death,  his  body  was  wrapped 
in  a  mantle,  and  in  the  stillness  of  midnight  was  silently 
sunk  in  the  middle  of  the  stream.  The  wanderer  had 
crossed  a  large  part  of  the  continent  in  search  of  gold,  and 
found  nothing  so  remarkable  as  his  burial-place. 

No  longer  guided  by  the  energy  and  pride  of  Soto, 
Jane,      the  company  resolved  on  reaching  New  Spain  with- 
out  delay.     Should  they  embark  in  such  miserable 
boats  as  they  could  construct,  and  descend  the  river  ?     Or 
should  they  seek  a,  path  to  Mexico  through  the  forests? 
They  were  unanimous  in  the  opinion  that  it  was  less  dan- 
gerous to  go  by  land ;  the  hope  was  still  cherished  that  some 
wealthy  state,  some  opulent  city,  might  yet  be  discovered, 
and  all  fatigues  be  forgotten  in  the  midst  of  victory  and 
spoils.     Again  they  penetrated  the  western  wilder- 
July,      ness ;  in  July,  they  found  themselves  in  the  country  of 
^  the  Natchitoches ;  but  the  Red  River  was  so  swollen 
that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  pass.     They  soon  became 
bewildered.    As  they  proceeded,  the  Indian  guides  purposely 
led  them  astray ;  "  they  went  up  and  down  through  very 


1543.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED    STATES.  51 

great  woods,"  without  making  any  progress.  The  wilder- 
ness, into  which  they  had  at  last  wandered,  was  sterile  and 
scarcely  inhabited ;  they  had  now  reached  the  great  buffalo 
prairies  of  the  west,  the  hunting-grounds  of  the  Pawnees 
and  Comanches,  the  migratory  tribes  on  the  confines  of 
Mexico.  The  Spaniards  believed  themselves  to  be  at  least 
one  hundred  and  fifty  leagues  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Des- 
perate as  the  resolution  seemed,  it  was  determined  to  return 
once  more  to  its  banks,  and  follow  its  current  to  the  sea. 
There  were  not  wanting  men,  whose  hopes  and  whose  cour- 
age were  not  yet  exhausted,  who  wished  rather  to  die  in  the 
wilderness  than  to  leave  it  in  poverty;  but  Moscoso,  the 
new  governor,  had  long  "  desired  to  see  himself  in  a  place 
where  he  might  sleep  his  full  sleep." 

They  came  upon  the  Mississippi  at  Minoya,  a  few  J^J- 
leagues  above  the  mouth  of  Red  River,  often  wading 
through  deep  waters,  and  grateful  to  God  if,  at  night,  they 
could  find  a  dry  resting-place.  The  Indians  whom  they 
had  enslaved  died  in  great  numbers ;  in  Minoya,  the  Chris- 
tians were  attacked  by  a  dangerous  epidemic,  and  many 
died. 

Nor  was  the  labor  yet  at  an  end ;  it  was  no  easy  task  jai^to 
for  men  in  their  condition  to  build  brigantines.  Erect-  July< 
ing  a  forge,  they  struck  off  the  fetters  from  the  slaves ;  and, 
gathering  every  scrap  of  iron  in  the  camp,  they  wrought  it 
into  nails.  Timber  was  sawed  by  hand  with  a  large  saw, 
which  they  had  always  carried  with  them.  They  calked 
their  vessels  with  a  weed  like  hemp ;  barrels,  capable  of 
holding  water,  were  with  difficulty  made ;  to  obtain  supplies 
of  provision,  all  the  hogs  and  even  the  horses  were  killed, 
and  their  flesh  preserved  by  drying ;  and  the  neighboring 
townships  of  Indians  were  so  plundered  of  their  food  that 
the  miserable  inhabitants  would  come  about  the  Spaniards 
begging  for  a  few  kernels  of  their  own  maize,  and  often  died 
from  weakness  and  want  of  food.  The  rising  of  the  Missis- 
sippi assisted  the  launching  of  the  seven  brigantines ;  they 
were  frail  barks,  which  had  no  decks ;  and  as,  from  the  want 
of  iron,  the  nails  were  of  necessity  short,  they  were  con- 
structed of  very  thin  planks,  so  that  any  severe  shock  would 


52  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

have  broken  them  in  pieces.  Thus  provided,  after  a 
jufy  passage  of  seventeen  days,  the  fugitives,  on  the  eigh- 
a"18'  teenth  of  July,  reached  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ;  the  dis- 
tance seemed  to  them  two  hundred  and  fifty  leagues,  and 
was  not  much  less  than  five  hundred  miles.  They  were  the 
first  to  observe  that  for  some  distance  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Mississippi  the  sea  is  not  salt,  so  great  is  the  volume 
of  fresh  water  which  the  river  discharges.  Following,  for 
the  most  part,  the  coast,  it  was  more  than  fifty  days  before 
the  men,  who  finally  escaped,  now  no  more  than  three  hun- 
dred and  eleven  in  number,  on  the  tenth  of  Sep- 
°'  tember  entered  the  river  Panuco. 

Such  is  the  history  of  the  first  voyage  of  Europeans  on 

the  Mississippi ;  the  honor  of  the  discovery  belongs  to  the 

Spaniards.      There   were   not   wanting    adventurers 

ISM.      who,  in  1544,  desired  to  make  one  more  attempt  to 

possess  the  country  by  force  of  arms ;  their  request 

was  refused.    Religious  zeal  was  more  persevering ; 

j^g   in  December,  1547,  Louis  Cancello,  a  missionary  of 

the   Dominican   order,  gained,  through  Philip,  then 

heir  apparent  in  Spain,  permission   to   visit   Florida,  and 

attempt  the  peaceful  conversion  of  the  natives.     Christianity 

was  to  conquer  the  land  against  which  so  many  experienced 

warriors  had  failed.     The  Spanish  governors  were  directed 

to  favor  the  design ;  all  slaves,  that  had  been  taken  from 

the  northern  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  were  to  be 

1M9.       manumitted  and  restored  to  their  country.     In  1549 

a  ship  was  fitted  out  with  much  solemnity ;  but  the 

priests,  who  sought  the  first  interview  with  the  natives,  were 

feared  as  enemies,  and,  being  immediately  attacked,  Louis 

and  two  others  fell  martyrs  to  their  zeal. 

Death  seemed  to  guard  the  approaches  to  that  land. 
While  the  Castilians  were  everywhere  else  victorious,  they 
were  driven  for  a  time  to  abandon  the  soil  of  Florida,  after 
it  was  wet  with  their  blood.  But  under  that  name  they 
continued  to  claim  all  North  America,  even  as  far  as  Can- 
ada and  Newfoundland.  No  history  exists  of  their  early 
exploration  of  the  coast,  nor  is  even  the  name  of  the  Spanish 
navigator  ascertained,  who,  between  the  years  1524  and 


1562.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  53 

1540,  discovered  the  Chesapeake,  and  made  it  known  as 
"the  Bay  of  St.  Mary."  Under  that  appellation  the  his- 
torian Oviedo,  writing  a  little  after  1540,  describes  it  as 
opening  to  the  sea  in  the  latitude  of  thirty-six  degrees  and 
foi-ty  minutes,  and  as  including  islands ;  of  two  rivers  which 
it  receives,  he  calls  the  north-eastern  one  Salt  River ;  the 
other,  the  river  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  the  cape  to  the  north  of 
it,  which  he  places  in  the  latitude  of  thirty-seven  degrees, 
he  names  Cape  St.  John.  The  Bay  of  St.  Mary  is  marked 
on  all  Spanish  maps,  after  the  year  1549.  But  as  yet  not 
a  Spanish  fort  was  erected  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  not  a  har- 
bor was  occupied,  not  one  settlement  was  begun.  The  first 
permanent  establishment  of  the  Spaniards  in  Florida  was 
the  result  of  jealous  bigotry. 

For  France  had  begun  to  settle  the  region  with  a  colony 
of  Protestants ;  and  Calvinism,  which,  with  the  special 
co-operation  of  Calvin  himself,  had  for  a  short  season       1662. 
occupied  the  coasts  of  Brazil  and  the  harbor  of  Rio       1555. 
Janeiro,   was   now  to  be  planted  on  the  borders  of 
Florida.     Coligny  had  long  desired  to  establish  a  refuge  for 
the  Huguenots,  and  a  Protestant  French  empire,  in  America. 
Disappointed  in  his  first  effort,  by  the  apostasy  and  faith- 
lessness of  his  agent,  Villegagnon,  he  still  persevered ;  moved 
alike  by  religious  zeal,  and  by  a  passion  for  the  honor  of 
France.  •  The  expedition  which  he  now  planned  was 
intrusted  to  the  command  of  John  Ribault,  of  Dieppe,      icez. 
a  brave  man,  of  maritime  experience,  and  a  firm  Prot- 
estant ;  and  was  attended  by  some  of  the  best  of  the  young 
French  nobility,  as  well  as  by  veteran  troops.     The  feeble 
Charles  IX.  conceded  an  ample  commission,  and  in 
February,  1562,  the  squadron  set  sail  for  the  shores  of  Feb.  is. 
North  America.     Desiring  to  establish  their  planta- 
tion in  a  genial  clime,  land  was  first  made  in  the  latitude  of 
St.  Augustine ;  the  noble  river  which  we  call  the  St. 
John's  was  discovered,  and  named  the  river  of  May.      May. 
It  is  the  St.  Matheo  of  the  Spaniards.   The  forests  of 
mulberries  were  admired,  and  caterpillars  readily  mistaken 
for  silkworms.     The  cape  received  a  French  name ;  as  the 
ships  sailed  along  the  coast,  the  numerous  streams  were 


54  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

called  after  the  rivers  of  France ;  and  America,  for  a  while, 
had  its  Seine,  its  Loire,  and  its  Garonne.  In  searching  for  the 
Jordan,  or  Combahee,  they  came  upon  Port  Royal  entrance, 
which  seemed  the  outlet  of  a  magnificent  river.  The  greatest 
ships  of  France  and  the  argosies  of  Venice  could  ride  securely 
in  the  deep  water  of  the  harbor.  They  extracted  turpentine 
from  the  pines,  and  they  calked  their  vessels  with  the  moss 
which  grows  on  the  trees  of  that  sea-coast  and  so  envelops 
the  tallest  oaks  as  to  form  natural  arbors,  impervious  to  the 
sun.  It  was  perhaps  on  Parris  Island  that  a  monumental 
stone,  engraved  with  the  arms  of  France,  was  proudly 
raised.  To  secure  the  region  to  his  native  land,  Ribault 
determined  to  leave  a  party  of  twenty-six  to  keep  possession 
of  it.  Fort  Charles,  the  Carolina,  so  called  in  honor  of 
Charles  IX.  of  France,  gave  a  name  to  the  country,  a  cen- 
tury before  it  was  occupied  by  the  English. 
1562.  In  July,  Ribault  and  the  ships  arrived  safely  in 
July  20.  prance>  But  the  fires  of  civil  war  had  been  kindled 
in  all  the  provinces  of  the  kingdom ;  and  the  promised  re- 
enforcements  for  Carolina  were  never  levied.  The  situation 
of  the  French  became  precarious.  The  natives  were  friendly ; 
but  the  soldiers  themselves  were  insubordinate,  and  dissen- 
sions prevailed.  The  commandant  at  Carolina  repressed  the 
turbulent  spirit  with  arbitrary  cruelty,  and  lost  his  life  in  a 
mutiny  which  his  ungovernable  passion  had  provoked.  The 
new  commander  succeeded  in  restoring  order.  But  the  love 
of  his  native  land  is  a  passion  easily  revived  in  the  breast  of 
a  Frenchman ;  and  the  company  resolved  to  embark  in  such 

a  brigantine  as  they  could  themselves  construct.  In- 
1663.  toxicated  with  joy  at  the  thought  of  returning  home, 

they  neglected  to  provide  sufficient  stores ;  and  they 
were  overtaken  by  famine  at  sea,  with  its  attendant  crimes. 
A  small  English  bark  at  length  boarded  their  vessel,  and, 
setting  the  most  feeble  on  shore  upon  the  coast  of  France, 
carried  the  rest  to  the  queen  of  England.  Thus  fell  the 
first  attempt  of  France  in  French  Florida,  within  the 
southern  confines  of  South  Carolina. 

After  the  treacherous  peace  between   Charles   IX.  and 
the   Huguenots,  Coligny  renewed  his  solicitations  for  the 


1564.  SPANIARDS   IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  55 

colonization  of  Florida.  The  king  gave  consent; 
in  1564  three  ships  were  conceded  for  the  service ;  1554. 
and  Laudonniere,  who,  in  the  former  voyage,  had 
been  upon  the  American  coast,  a  man  of  great  intelligence, 
though  a  seaman  rather  than  a  soldier,  was  appointed  to 
lead  forth  the  colony.  Emigrants  readily  appeared;  for 
the  climate  of  Florida  was  so  celebrated  that,  according  to 
rumor,  the  duration  of  human  life  was  doubled  under  its 
genial  influences ;  and  men  still  dreamed  of  rich  mines  of 
gold  in  the  interior.  Coligny  was  desirous  of  obtaining 
accurate  descriptions  of  the  country ;  and  James  le  Moyne, 
called  De  Morgues,  an  ingenious  painter,  was  commissioned 
to  execute  colored  drawings  of  the  objects  which 

...  ,.  .      .,       °    A  i      .     ,        -,  April  22 

might  engage  his  curiosity.  A  voyage  of  sixty  days  to 
brought  the  fleet,  by  the  way  of  the  Canaries  and 
the  Antilles,  to  the  shores  of  Florida.  The  harbor  of  Port 
Royal,  rendered  gloomy  by  recollections  of  misery,  was 
avoided;  and  after  searching  the  coast,  and  discovering 
places  which  were  so  full  of  amenity  that  melancholy  itself 
could  not  but  change  its  humor  as  it  gazed,  the  followers  of 
Calvin  planted  themselves  on  the  banks  of  the  river  May, 
near  St.  John's  bluff.  They  sung  a  psalm  of  thanksgiving, 
and  gathered  courage  from  acts  of  devotion.  The  fort  now 
erected  was  also  named  Carolina.  The  result  of  this  attempt 
to  procure  for  France  immense  dominions  at  the  south  of 
our  republic,  through  the  agency  of  a  Huguenot  colony, 
has  been  very  frequently  narrated :  in  the  history  of  human 
nature  it  forms  a  dark  picture  of  malignant  bigotry. 

The  French  were  hospitably  welcomed  by  the  natives ; 
a  monument,  bearing  the  arms  of  France,  was  crowned  with 
laurels,  and  its  base  encircled  with  baskets  of  corn.  What 
need  is  there  of  minutely  relating  the  simple  manners  of 
the  red  men ;  the  dissensions  of  rival  tribes ;  the  largesses 
offered  to  the  strangers  to  secure  their  protection  or  their 
alliance ;  the  improvident  prodigality  with  which  careless 
soldiers  wasted  the  supplies  of  food ;  the  certain  approach 
of  scarcity ;  the  gifts  and  the  tribute  levied  from  the  Indians 
by  entreaty,  menace,  or  force  ?  By  degrees  the  confidence 
of  the  natives  was  exhausted ;  they  had  welcomed  power- 


56  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  1L 

ful  guests,  who  promised  to  become  their  benefactors,  and 
who  now  robbed  their  humble  granaries. 

But  the  worst  evil  in  the  new  settlement  was  the  char- 
acter of  the  emigrants.  Though  patriotism  and  religious 
enthusiasm  had  prompted  the  expedition,  the  inferior  class 
of  the  colonists  was  a  motley  group  of  dissolute  men. 
Mutinies  were  frequent.  The  men  were  mad  with  the 
passion  for  sudden  wealth ;  and  a  party,  under  the  pretence 
of  desiring  to  escape  from  famine,  compelled  Laudonniere 
to  sign  an  order,  permitting  their  embarkation  for 
D&S*B  New  Spain.  No  sooner  were  they  possessed  of  this 
apparent  sanction  of  the  chief,  than  they  equipped 
two  vessels,  and  began  a  career  of  piracy  against  the  Span- 
iards. Tims  the  French  were  the  aggressors  in  the  first  act 
of  hostility  in  the  New  World ;  an  act  of  crime  and  temer- 
ity which  was  soon  avenged.  The  pirate  vessel  was  taken, 
and  most  of  the  men  disposed  of  as  prisoners  or  slaves.  A 
few  escaped  in  a  boat ;  these  could  find  no  shelter  but  at 
Fort  Carolina,  where  Laudonniere  sentenced  the  ringleaders 
to  death. 

Meantime,  the  scarcity  became  extreme  ;  and  the  friend- 
ship of  the  natives  was  entirely  forfeited  by  unprofita- 
1565.       ble  severity.    March  of  1565  was  gone,  and  there  were 
no  supplies  from   France;   April   passed  away,  and 
the  expected  recruits  had  not  arrived;   May  came,  but  it 
brought  nothing  to  sustain  the  hopes  of  the  exiles.     It  was 
resolved  to  return  to  Europe  in  such  miserable  brigantines 
as  despair  could  construct.     Just  then  Sir  John  Haw- 
Aug.  t.  tins,  the  slave-merchant,  arrived  from  the  West  Indies. 
He  came  fresh  from  the  sale  of  a  cargo  of  Africans, 
whom  he  had  kidnapped  with  signal  ruthlessness ;  and  he 
now  displayed  the  most  generous  sympathy,  not  only  fur- 
nishing a  liberal  supply  of  provisions,  but  relinquishing  a 
vessel  from  his  own  fleet.     Preparations  were  continued ; 
the  colony  was  on  the  point  of  embarking,  when  sails  were 
descried.    Ribault  had  arrived  to   assume  the  command; 
bringing  with  him  supplies  of  every  kind,  emigrants  with 
their  families,  garden-seeds,  implements  of  husbandry,  and 
the  various  kinds  of  domestic  animals.     The  French,  now 


15G5.  SPANIARDS   IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  57 

wild  with  joy,  seemed  about  to  acquire  a  home,  and  Calvin- 
ism to  become  fixed  in  the  inviting  regions  of  Florida. 

But  Spain  had  never  relinquished  her  claim  to  that  terri- 
tory ;  where,  if  she  had  not  planted  colonies,  she  had  buried 
many  hundreds  of  her  bravest  sons.  Should  the  proud 
Philip  II.  abandon  a  part  of  his  dominions  to  France  ? 
Should  he  suffer  his  commercial  monopoly  to  be  endangered 
by  a  rival  settlement  in  the  vicinity  of  the  West  Indies? 
Should  the  bigoted  Romanist  permit  the  heresy  of  Calvin- 
ism to  be  planted  in  the  neighborhood  of  his  Catholic  prov- 
inces? There  had  appeared  at  the  Spanish  court  a  bold 
commander,  well  fitted  for  acts  of  reckless  hostility.  Pedro 
Melendez  de  Aviles,  often,  as  a  naval  officer,  encountering 
pirates,  had  become  inured  to  acts  of  prompt  and  unsparing 
vengeance.  He  had  acquired  wealth  in  Spanish  America, 
which  was  no  school  of  benevolence ;  and  his  conduct  there 
had  provoked  an  inquiry,  which,  after  a  long  arrest,  ended  in 
his  conviction.  The  heir  of  Melendez  had  been  shipwrecked 
among  the  Bermudas ;  the  father  desired  to  return  and 
search  among  the  islands  for  tidings  of  his  only  son.  Philip 
II.  suggested"  the  conquest  and  colonization  of  Flor- 
ida ;  and  a  compact  was  soon  framed  and  confirmed,  M^-JO. 
by  which  Melendez,  who  desired  an  opportunity  to 
retrieve  his  honor,  was  constituted  the  hereditary  governor 
of  a  territory  of  almost  unlimited  extent. 

On  his  part  he  stipulated,  at  his  own  cost,  in  the  following 
May,  to  invade  Florida  with  at  least  five  hundred  men; 
to  complete  its  conquest  within  three  years ;  to  explore  its 
currents  and  channels,  the  dangers  of  its  coasts,  and  the 
depth  of  its  havens ;  to  establish  a  colony  of  at  least  five 
hundred  persons,  of  whom  one  hundred  should  be  married 
men  ;  with  at  least  twelve  ecclesiastics,  besides  four  Jesuits. 
He  further  engaged  to  introduce  into  his  province  all  kinds 
of  domestic  animals,  and  five  hundred  negro  slaves.  The 
sugar-cane  was  to  become  a  staple  of  the  country. 

The  king,  in  return,  promised  the  adventurer  various 
commercial  immunities ;  the  office  of  governor  for  life,  with 
the  right  of  naming  his  son-in-law  as  his  successor ;  an  es- 
tate of  twenty-five  square  leagues  in  the  immediate  vicinity 


58  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

of  the  settlement ;  a  salary  of  two  thousand  ducats,  charge- 
able on  the  revenues  of  the  province ;  and  a  fifteenth  part 
of  all  royal  perquisites. 

Meantime,  news  arrived,  as  the  French  writers  assert 
through  the  treachery  of  the  court  of  France,  that  the 
Huguenots  had  made  a  plantation  in  Florida,  and  that 
Ribault  was  preparing  to  set  sail  with  re-enforcements. 
The  cry  was  raised  that  the  heretics  must  be  extirpated ; 
and  Melendez  readily  obtained  the  forces  which  he  required. 
More  than  twenty-five  hundred  persons  —  soldiers,  sailors, 
priests,  Jesuits,  married  men  Avith  their  families,  laborers,  and 
mechanics,  and,  Avith  the  exception  of  three  hundred  soldiers, 
all  at  the  cost  of  Melendez  —  undertook  the  invasion.  The 
trade-Avinds  of  July  bore  the  expedition  rapidly  across  the 
Atlantic.  A  tempest  scattered  the  fleet  on  its  passage  ;  it 

was  with  only  one  third  part  of  his  forces  that  Me- 
Aux*9  lendez  arrived  at  the  harbor  of  St.  John  in  Porto 

Rico.  But  he  esteemed  celerity  the  secret  of  suc- 
cess ;  and,  refusing  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  rest  of  his 
squadron,  he  sailed  for  Florida.  It  had  ever  been  his  design 
to  explore  the  coast ;  to  select  a  favorable  site  for  a  settle- 
ment ;  and,  after  constructing  fortifications,  to  attack 
Aug.  28.  the  French.  It  was  on  the  day  which  the  customs 

of  Rome  have  consecrated  to  the  memory  of  one  of 
the  most  eloquent  sons  of  Africa,  and  one  of  the  most 
venerated  of  the  fathers  of  the  church,  that  he  came  in 
sight  of  Florida.  For  four  days  he  sailed  along  the  coast, 

uncertain  where  the  French  were  established ;  on  the 
Sept.  2.  fifth  day  he  landed,  and  gathered  from  the  Indians 

accounts  of  the  Huguenots.  At  the  same  time  he 
discovered  a  fine  haven  and  beautiful  river ;  and,  remember- 
ing the  saint  on  Avhose  day  he  neared  the  coast,  he  gave  to 
the  harbor  and  to  the  stream  the  name  of  St.  Augustine. 

Sailing  then  to  the  north,  he  discovered  a  portion  of 
Sept.  4.  the  French  fleet,  and  observed  the  road  where  they 

were  anchored.  The  French  demanded  his  name 
and  objects.  "  I  am  Melendez  of  Spain,"  replied  he  ;  "  sent 
with  strict  orders  from  my  king  to  gibbet  and  behead  all 
the  Protestants  in  these  regions.  The  Frenchman  who  is  a 


1565.  SPANIARDS   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  59 

Catholic  I  will  spare ;  every  heretic  shall  die."  The  French 
fleet,  unprepared  for  action,  cut  its  cables ;  the  Spaniards, 
for  some  time,  continued  an  ineffectual  chase. 

At  the  hour  of  vespers,  on  the  evening  preceding 
the  anniversary  of  the  nativity  of  Mary,  the  Span-  Sept.V. 
iards  returned  to  the  harbor  of  St.  Augustine.    At 
noonday  of  the  festival,  that  is,  on  the  eighth  of  Sep-  Sept.  8. 
tember,  the  governor  went  on  shore,  to  take  posses- 
sion of  the  continent  in  the  name  of  his  king.     Philip  II. 
Avas  proclaimed  monarch  of  all  North  America.     The  mass 
of    Our  Lady  was  performed,  and  the  foundation  of   St. 
Augustine  was  immediately  laid.     It  is,  by  more  than  forty 
years,  the  oldest  town  in  the  United  States. 

By  the  French  it  was  debated  whether  they  should  im- 
prove their  fortifications  and  await  the  approach   of   the 
Spaniards,   or   proceed  to   sea    and    attack    their    enemy. 
Against  the  advice  of  his  officers,  Ribault  resolved 
upon  the  latter  course.     Hardly  had  he  left  the  harbor  Sept.  10. 
for  the  open  sea,  before  there  arose  a  fearful  storm, 
which  continued  till  October,  and  wrecked  every  ship  of 
the  French  fleet  on  the  Florida  coast.     The  vessels  were 
dashed  against  the  rocks  about  fifty  leagues  south  of  Fort 
Carolina ;  most  of  the  men  escaped  with  their  lives. 

The  Spanish  ships  also  suffered,  but  not  so  severely ;  and 
the  troops  at  St.  Augustine  were  entirely  safe.  They  knew 
that  the  French  settlement  was  left  in  a  defenceless  state. 
Melondez  led  his  men  through  the  low  land  that  divides  the 
St.  Augustine  from  the  St.  John's,  and  with  a  furious  onset 
surprised  the  weak  garrison,  who  had  looked  only 
towards  the  sea  for  the  approach  of  danger.  After  Sept.  21. 
a  short  contest,  the  Spaniards  were  masters  of  the 
fort;  soldiers,  women,  children,  the  aged,  the  sick,  were 
alike  massacred.  The  Spanish  account  asserts  that  Melon- 
dez  ordered  women  and  young  children  to  be  spared ;  yet 
not  till  after  the  havoc  had  long  been  raging. 

Nearly  two  hundred  persons  were  killed.  A  few  escaped 
into  the  woods,  among  them  Laudonniere,  Challus,  and  Le 
Moyne,  who  have  related  the  horrors  of  the  scene.  But 
whither  should  they  fly  ?  Death  met  them  in  the  woods  j 


60  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

and  the  heavens,  the  earth,  the  sea,  and  men,  all  seemed 
conspired  against  them.  Should  they  surrender,  appealing 
to  the  sympathy  of  their  conquerors  ?  "  Let  us,"  said  Chal- 
lus,  "  trust  in  the  mercy  of  God,  rather  than  of  these  men." 
A  few  gave  themselves  up,  and  were  immediately  murdered. 
The  others,  after  the  severest  sufferings,  found  their  way  to 
the  seaside,  and  were  received  on  board  two  small  French 
vessels  which  had  remained  in  the  harbor.  The  Spaniards, 
angry  that  any  should  have  escaped,  insulted  the  corpses  of 
the  dead  with  wanton  barbarity. 

The  victory  had  been  gained  on    the   festival  of    St. 
Matthew;  and  hence  the  Spanish  name  of  the  river  May. 

After  the  carnage,  mass  was  said ;  a  cross  raised ;  and 
Sep^k. tne  s^te  f°r  a  church  selected,  on  ground  still  smoking 

with  the  blood  of  a  peaceful  colony. 
The  shipwrecked  men  were,  in  their  turn,  soon  discovered. 
Melendez  invited  them  to  rely  on  his  compassion ;  in  a 
state  of  helpless  weakness,  wasted  by  their  fatigues  at  sea, 
half  famished,  destitute  of  water  and  of  food,  they  capitu- 
lated, and  in  successive  divisions  were  ferried  across  the 
intervening  river.  As  the  captives  stepped  upon  the  oppo- 
site bank,  their  hands  were  tied  behind  them ;  and  in  this 
way  they  were  marched  towards  St.  Augustine,  like  sheep 
to  the  slaughter-house.  When  they  approached  the  fort,  a 
signal  was  given ;  and,  amidst  the  sound  of  trumpets  and 
drums,  the  Spaniards  fell  upon  the  unhappy  men,  who  could 
offer  no  resistance.  A  few  Catholics  were  spared ;  some 
mechanics  were  reserved  as  slaves  ;  the  rest  were  massacred, 
"  not  as  Frenchmen,  but  as  Lutherans."  The  whole  number 
of  victims  here  and  at  the  fort  is  said,  by  the  French,  to 
have  been  about  nine  hundred ;  the  Spanish  accounts  dim- 
inish the  number  of  the  slain,  but  not  the  atrocity  of  the 
deed. 
ic6c  In  1566,  Melendez  despatched  a  vessel  from  his 

squadron,  with  thirty  soldiers  and  two  Dominicans,  to 
settle  the  lands  on  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  then  known  as  St. 
Mary's,  and  convert  its  inhabitants;  but,  disheartened  by 
contrary  winds  and  the  certain  perils  of  the  proposed  colo- 
nization, they  turned  about  before  coming  near  the  bay,  and 


1568.  SPANIARDS  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  61 

sailed  for  Seville,  spreading  the  worst  accounts  of  a  country 
which  none  of  them  had  seen. 

Melendez  returned  to  Spain,  impoverished,  but  triumphant. 
The  French  government  heard  of  his  outrage  with  apathy, 
and  made  not  even  a  remonstrance  on  the  ruin  of  a  colony 
which,  if  it  had  been  protected,  would  have  given  to  France 
an  empire  in  the  south,  before  England  had  planted  a  single 
spot  on  the  new  continent.  History  has  been  more  faithful, 
and  has  assisted  humanity  by  giving  to  the  crime  of  Melen- 
dez an  infamous  notoriety.  The  first  town  in  the  United 
States  sprung  from  the  unrelenting  bigotry  of  the  Spanish 
king.  We  admire  the  rapid  growth  of  our  larger  cities ; 
the  sudden  transformation  of  portions  of  the  wilderness 
into  blooming  states.  St.  Augustine  presents  a  stronger 
contrast,  in  its  transition  from  the  bigoted  policy  of  Philip 
II.  to  the  American  principle  of  religious  liberty. 

The  Huguenots  and  the  French  nation  did  not  share       1567. 
the  indifference  of  the  court.     Dominic  de  Gourgues 
—  a  bold  soldier  of  Gascony,  whose  life  had  been  a  series  of 
adventures,  now  employed  in  the  army  against  Spain,  now  a 
prisoner  and  a  galley-slave  among  the  Spaniards,  taken  by 
the  Turks  with  the  vessel  in  which  he  rowed,  and  redeemed 
by  the  commander  of  the  knights  of  Malta  —  burned  with 
a  desire  to  avenge  his  own  wrongs  and  the  honor  of  his 
country.     The  sale  of  his  property,  and  the  contributions  of 
his  friends,  furnished  the  means  of  equipping  three  ships,  in 
which,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  men,  he,  on  the 
twenty-second  of  August,  1567,  embarked  for  Florida,  Aug  22. 
to  destroy  and  revenge.     He  surprised  two  forts  near 
the  mouth  of  the  St.  Matheo ;  and,  as  terror  magnified  the 
number  of  his  followers,  the  consternation  of  the  Spaniards 
enabled  him  to  gain  possession  of  the  larger  establishment, 
near  the  spot  which  the  French  colony  had  occupied. 
Too  weak  to  maintain  his  position,  he,  in  May,  1568,      jj^; 
hastily  weighed  anchor  for  Europe,  having  first  hanged 
his  prisoners  upon  the  trees,  and  placed  over  them  the  in- 
scription :  "  I  do  not  this  as  unto  Spaniards  or  mariners,  but 
as  unto  traitors,  robbers,  and  murderers."     The  natives,  who 
had  been  ill-treated  both  by  the  Spaniards  and  the  French, 


62  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  II. 

enjoyed  the  consolation  of  seeing  their  enemies  butcher  one 
another. 

The  attack  of  the  fiery  Gascon  was  but  a  passing  storm. 
France  disavowed  the  expedition,  and  relinquished  all  pre- 
tension to  Florida.  Spain  grasped  at  it  as  a  portion  of  her 
dominions ;  and,  if  discovery  could  confer  a  right,  her  claim 
was  founded  in  justice.  In  1573,  Pedro  Melendez  Marquez, 
nephew  to  the  Adelantado,  Melendez  de  Aviles,  pursued  the 
explorations  begun  by  his  relative.  Having  traced  the  coast 
line  from  the  southern  cape  of  Florida,  he  sailed  into  the 
Chesapeake  Bay,  estimated  the  distance  between  its  head- 
lands, took  soundings  of  the  water  in  its  channel,  and 
observed  its  many  harbors  and  deep  rivers,  navigable  for 
ships.  His  voyage  may  have  extended  a  few  miles  north 
of  the  bay.  The  territory  which  he  saw  was  held  by  Spain 
to  be  a  part  of  her  dominions,  but  was  left  by  her  in  abey- 
ance. Cuba  remained  the  centre  of  her  West  Indian  pos- 
sessions, and  every  thing  around  it  was  included  within  her 
empire.  Her  undisputed  sovereignty  was  asserted  not  only 
over  the  archipelagoes  within  the  tropics,  but  over  the  conti- 
nent round  the  inner  seas.  From  the  remotest  south-eastern 
cape  of  the  Caribbean,  along  the  whole  shore  to  the  Cape  of 
Florida,  and  beyond  it,  all  was  hers.  The  Gulf  of  Mexico 
lay  embosomed  within  her  territories. 


1602.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  63 


CHAPTER  III. 

ENGLAND    TAKES    POSSESSION   OF    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

THE  attempts  of  the  French  to  colonize  Florida,  though 
unprotected  and  unsuccessful,  were  not  without  an  impor- 
tant influence  on  succeeding  events.  About  the  time  of  the 
retiirn  of  De  Goiirgues,  Walter  Raleigh,  a  young  English- 
man, had  abruptly  left  the  university  of  Oxford,  to 
engage  in  the  civil  contests  between  the  Huguenots 
and  the  Catholics  in  France,  and  with  the  Prince  of 
Navarre,  afterwards  Henry  IV.,  was  learning  the  art  of  war 
under  the  veteran  Coligny.  The  Protestant  party  was,  at 
that  time,  strongly  excited  with  indignation  at  the  massacre 
which  De  Gourgues  had  avenged ;  and  Raleigh  could  not 
but  gather,  from  his  associates  and  his  commander,  intel- 
ligence respecting  Florida  and  the  navigation  to  those  re- 
gions. Some  of  the  miserable  men  who  escaped  from  the 
first  expedition  had  been  conducted  to  Elizabeth,  and  had 
kindled  in  the  public  mind  in  England  a  desire  for  the 
possession  of  the  southern  coast  of  our  republic ;  the  reports 
of  Hawkins,  who  had  been  the  benefactor  of  the  French 
on  the  river  May,  increased  the  national  interest ;  and  De 
Morgues,  the  painter,  who  had  sketched  in  Florida  the  most 
remarkable  appearances  of  nature,  ultimately  found  the 
opportunity  of  finishing  his  designs,  through  the  munifi- 
cence of  Raleigh. 

The  expeditions  of  the  Cabots,  though  they  had  revealed 
a  continent  of  easy  access,  in  a  temperate  zone,  had  failed 
to  discover  a  passage  to  the  Indies ;  and  their  fame  was 
dimmed  by  that  of  Vasco  da  Gama,  whose  achievement 
made  Lisbon  the  emporium  of  Europe.  Thorne  and  Eliot, 
of  Bristol,  visited  Newfoundland  probably  in  1502 ;  in  that 
year,  savages  in  their  wild  attire  were  exhibited  to  the 
king;  but  North  America  as  yet  invited  no  colony,  for  it 


64  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  HI. 

promised  no  sudden  wealth,  while  the  Indies  more  and 
more  inflamed  commercial  cupidity.  In  March,  1501,  Henry 
VII.  granted  an  exclusive  privilege  of  trade  to  a  company 
composed  half  of  Englishmen,  half  of  Portuguese,  with 
leave  to  sail  towards  any  point  in  the  compass,  and  the  inci- 
dental right  to  inhabit  the  regions  which  should  be  found  ; 
there  is,  however,  no  proof  that  a  voyage  was  made  under 
the  authority  of  this  commission.  In  December  of  the 
following  year,  a  new  grant  in  part  to  the  same  patentees 
promised  a  forty  years'  monopoly  of  trade,  an  equally  wide 
scope  for  adventure,  and  larger  favor  to  the  alien  associates ; 
but  even  these  great  privileges  seem  not  to  have  been  fol- 
lowed by  an  expedition.  The  only  connection  which  as  yet 
existed  between  England  and  the  New  World  was  with 
Newfoundland  and  its  fisheries. 

The  idea  of  planting  agricultural  colonies  in  the  tem- 
perate regions  of  America  was  slowly  developed,  and  could 
gain  vigor  only  from  a  long  succession  of  efforts  and  a 
better  knowledge  of  the  structure  of  the  globe.  The  last 
voyage  of  Columbus  still  had  for  its  purpose  a  western  pas- 
sage to  India;  with  which  he,  to  his  dying  hour,  believed 
that  the  lands  of  his  discovery  were  connected.  In  the  con- 
ception of  Europe  the  new  continent  Avas  very  slowly  disen- 
gaged from  the  easternmost  lands  of  Asia,  and  its  colonization 
was  not  earnestly  attempted  till  its  separate  existence  was 
ascertained. 

Besides,  Henry  VII.,  as  a  Catholic,  could  not  wholly 
disregard  the  bull  of  the  pope,  which  gave  to  Spain  a  para- 
mount title  to  the  North  American  world ;  and  as  a  prince 
he  sought  a  counterpoise  to  France  in  an  intimate  Spanish 
alliance,  which  he  hoped  to  confirm  by  the  successive  mar- 
riage of  one  of  his  sons  after  the  other  to  Catharine  of 
Aragon,  youngest  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

Henry  VIII.,  on  his  accession,  surrendered  to  his  father- 
in-law  the  services  of  Sebastian  Cabot.  Once,  perhaps  in 
1517,  the  young  king  promoted  a  voyage  of  discovery,  but 
it  "tooke  no  full  effect."  To  avoid  interference  with  Spain, 
Robert  Thome,  of  Bristol,  who  had  long  resided  in  Seville, 
proposed  voyages  to  the  east  by  way  of  the  north ;  believ- 


1-547.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  65 

ing  that  there  would  be  found  an  open  sea  near  the  pole, 
over  which,  during  the  arctic  continuous  day,  Englishmen 
might  reach  the  land  of  spices  without  travelling  half  so  far 
as  by  the  way  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

In  1527  an  expedition,  favored  by  Henry  VIII.  and  Wol- 
sey,  sailed  from  Plymouth  for  the  discovery  of  the  north- 
west passage.  But  the  larger  ship  was  lost  in  July  among 
icebergs,  in  a  great  storm ;  in  August,  accounts  of  the  dis- 
aster were  forwarded  to  the  king  and  to  the  cardinal  from 
the  haven  of  St.  John,  in  Newfoundland.  The  fisheries  of 
that  region  were  already  frequented,  not  by  the  English 
only,  but  also  by  Normans,  Biscayans,  and  Bretons. 

The  repudiation  of  Catharine  of  Aragon  by  Henry  VIII., 
sundering  his  political  connection  with  Spain,  opened  the 
New  World  to  English  rivalry.  He  was  vigorous  in  his 
attempts  to  suppress  piracy ;  and  the  navigation  of  his 
subjects  flourished  under  his  protection.  The  banner  of 
St.  George  was  often  displayed  in  the  harbors  of  Northern 
Africa  and  in  the  Levant ;  and  now  that  commerce,  emanci- 
pated from  the  limits  of  the  inner  seas,  went  boldly  forth 
upon  the  oceans,  the  position  of  England  gave  her  a  pledge 
of  superiority. 

An  account  exists  of  an  expedition  to  the  north-west  in 
1536,  conducted  by  Hore  of  London,  and  "  assisted  by  the 
good  countenance  of  Henry  VIII."  But  the  two  ships,  the 
"  Trinity  "  and  the  "  Minion,"  were  worn  out  by  a  trouble- 
some voyage  of  more  than  two  months,  before  they  reached 
a  harbor  in  Newfoundland.  There  the  disheartened  advent- 
urers wasted  away,  from  famine  and  misery.  In  the  ex- 
tremity of  their  distress,  a  French  ship  arrived,  "well 
furnished  with  vittails : "  of  this  they  obtained  possession 
by  a  stroke  of  "policie,"  and  set  sail  for  England.  The 
French,  following  in  the  English  ship,  complained  of  the 
exchange,  upon  which  Henry  VIII.,  of  his  own  private 
purse,  "made  them  full  and  royal  recompense."  In  1541, 
the  fisheries  of  "  Newland  "  were  favored  by  an  act  of  par- 
liament, the  first  which  refers  to  America. 

The  accession  of  Edward,  in  1547,  and  the  consequent 
ascendency  of  Protestantism,  marks  the  era  when  England 


66  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

began  to  foreshadow  her  maritime  superiority.  In  the  first 
year  of  his  reign,  the  council  advanced  a  hundred  pounds 
for  Cabot,  "a  pilot,  to  come  out  of  Hispain  to  serve  and 
inhabit  in  England."  In  the  next  year,  the  fisheries  of 
Newfoundland,  which  had  suffered  from  exactions  by  the 
officers  of  the  admiralty,  obtained  the  protection  of  a  special 
act,  "to  the  intent  that  merchants  and  fishermen  might  use 
the  trade  of  fishing  freely  without  such  charges." 

In  1549  Sebastian  Cabot  was  once  more  in  England, 
brought  over  at  the  cost  of  the  exchequer ;  and,  "  for  good 
service  done  and  to  be  done,"  was  pensioned  as  grand  pilot ; 
nor  would  he  return  to  Seville,  though  his  return  was  offi- 
cially demanded  by  the  emperor.  In  March,  1551,  a  special 
reward  was  bestowed  by  the  king  on  "  Sebastian  Cabote, 
the  great  seaman."  He  obtained  a  copy  of  the  patent  to 
his  family,  of  which  the  original  had  been  lost,  but  neither 
proposed  new  voyages  to  our  shores  nor  cherished  plans 
of  colonization.  He  seemed  to  set  no  special  value  on  his 
discovery  of  North  America  ;  to  find  a  shorter  route  to  the 
land  of  spices  was  the  dream  of  his  youth,  which  still 
haunted  him.  He  had  vainly  tried  the  north-west  and  the 
south-west;  he  now  advised  to  attempt  a  passage  by  the 
north-east,  and  was  made  president  of  the  company  of  mer- 
chants who  undertook  the  enterprise. 

In  May,  1553,  the  fleet  of  three  ships,  under  the  com- 
nland  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby,  following  the  instructions 
of  Cabot,  now  almost  an  octogenarian,  dropped  down  the 
Thames  with  the  intent  to  reach  China  by  doubling  the 
northern  promontory  of  Norway.  The  admiral,  separated 
from  his  companions  in  a  storm,  was  driven  by  the  cold  in 
September  to  seek  shelter  in  a  Lapland  harbor.  When 
search  was  made  for  him  in  the  following  spring,  his  whole 
company  had  perished  from  cold ;  Willoughby  himself,  whose 
papers  showed  that  he  had  survived  till  January,  was  found 
dead  in  his  cabin.  Richard  Chancellor,  in  one  of  the  other 
ships,  reached  the  harbor  of  Archangel.  This  was  "the 
discovery  of  Russia,"  and  the  commencement  of  maritime 
commerce  with  that  empire.  A  Spanish  writer  calls  the 
result  of  the  voyage  "  a  discovery  of  new  Indies." 


1558.          THE   ENGLISH  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  67 

Soon  after  the  accession  of  Mary  to  the  English  throne, 
the  emperor  Charles  V.  again  made  an  earnest  request  that 
Cabot  might  be  sent  back  to  his  service ;  but  the  veteran 
mariner  refused  to  leave  England,  where,  in  1556,  a  new 
company  was  formed  for  discovery,  of  which  he  was  a  part- 
ner and  the  president.  He  lived  to  an  extreme  old  age,  and 
in  the  hour  of  death  his  thoughts  wandered  to  the  ocean. 
The  discoverer  of  North  America  was  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  men  of  his  age.  Time  has  spared  all  too  few 
memorials  of  his  career.  He  gave  England  a  continent, 
and  no  one  knows  his  burial-place. 

Even  the  intolerance  of  Queen  Mary  could  not  check  the 
passion  for  maritime  adventure.  The  sea  was  becoming  the 
element  on  which  English  valor  was  best  displayed ;  Eng- 
lish sailors  neither  feared  the  heats  and  fevers  of  the  tropics, 
nor  northern  cold.  The  trade  to  Russia,  now  that  the  port 
of  Archangel  had  been  discovered,  became  very  lucra- 
tive ;  and  a  regular  and  as  yet  an  innocent  commerce  1553. 
was  carried  on  with  Africa.  The  marriage  of  Mary  1554 
with  the  heir  to  the  throne  of  Spain  tended  to  rouse  Ju]y 25> 
the  emulation  which  it  was  designed  to  check.  The 
enthusiasm  awakened  by  the  brilliant  pageantry  with  which 
King  Philip  was  introduced  into  London  excited  Richard 
Eden  to  gather  into  a  volume  the  history  of  the  most  mem- 
orable maritime  expeditions.  Religious  restraints,  the  thirst 
for  rapid  wealth,  the  desire  of  strange  adventure,  had  driven 
the  boldest  spirits  of  Spain  to  the  New  World ;  their  deeds 
had  been  commemorated  by  the  copious  and  accurate  de- 
tails of  their  own  historians ;  and  the  English,  through  the 
alliance  of  their  sovereign  made  familiar  with  the  Spanish 
language  and  literature,  became  emulous  of  Spanish  success 
beyond  the  ocean. 

Elizabeth  seconded  the  enterprise  of  her  subjects.  less. 
They  were  rendered  the  more  proud  and  intractable 
for  the  short  and  unsuccessful  effort  to  make  England  an 
appendage  to  Spain ;  and  the  triumph  of  Protestantism, 
quickening  the  spirit  of  nationality,  gave  a  new  impulse  to 
the  people.  England,  no  longer  the  ally,  but  the  antagonist 
of  Philip,  claimed  the  glory  of  being  the  mistress  of  the 


68  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  HI. 

northern  seas,  and  prepared  to  extend  her  commerce  to  every 
clime.  The  queen  strengthened  her  navy,  filled  her  arse- 
nals, and  encouraged  the  building  of  ships  in  England  :  she 
animated  the  adventurers  to  Russia  and  to  Africa  by  her 

special  protection ;  and  while  her  subjects  were  en- 
1i568t°  deavoring  to  penetrate  into  Persia  by  land,  arid  enlarge 

their  commerce  with  the  East  by  combining  the  use 
of  ships  and  caravans,  the  harbors  of  Spanish  America  were 
at  the  same  time  visited  by  their  privateers  in  pursuit  of 

the  rich  galleons  of  Spain,  and  at  least  from  thirty 
1574-8.  to  fifty  English  ships  came  annually  to  the  bays  and 

banks  of  Newfoundland. 

The  study  of  geography  had  now  become  an  interesting 
pursuit ;  the  press  teemed  with  books  of  travels,  maps  and 
descriptions  of  the  earth;  and  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  re- 
posing from  the  toils  of  war,  engaged  in  the  science  of  cos- 
mography. A  judicious  and  well-written  argument  in  favor 
of  the  possibility  of  a  north-western  passage  was  the  fruit 
of  his  literary  industry. 

The  same  views  were  entertained  by  one  of  the 

1576.          ,  » 

boldest  men  who  ever  ventured  upon  the  ocean. 
For  fifteen  years,  Martin  Frobisher,  an  Englishman,  well 
versed  in  various  navigation,  had  revolved  the  design  of 
accomplishing  the  discovery  of  the  north-western  passage ; 
esteeming  it  "  the  only  thing  of  the  world,  that  was  yet  left 
undone,  by  which  a  notable  minde  might  be  made  famous 
and  fortunate."  Too  poor  himself  to  provide  a  ship,  it  was 
in  vain  that  he  conferred  with  friends ;  in  vain  he  offered 
his  services  to  merchants.  After  years  of  desire,  his  repre- 
sentations found  a  hearing  at  court ;  and  Dudley,  Earl  of 
"Warwick,  liberally  promoted  his  design.  Two  small  barks 
of  twenty-five  and  of  twenty  tons',  with  a  pinnace  of  ten 
tons'  burden,  composed  the  whole  fleet,  which  was  to  enter 

gulfs  that  none  before  him  had  visited.  As  in 
Junes.  June,  1576,  they  dropped  down  the  Thames,  Queen 

Elizabeth  waved  her  hand  in  token  of  favor,  and,  by 
an  honorable  ^  message,  transmitted  her  approbation  of  an 
adventure  which  her  own  treasures  had  not  contributed  to 
advance.  During  a  storm  on  the  voyage,  the  pinnace  was 


1577.          THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  69 

swallowed  up  by  the  sea;  the  mariners  in  the  "Michael" 
became  terrified,  and  turned  their  prow  homewards ;  but 
Frobisher,  in  a  vessel  not  much  surpassing  in  tonnage  the 
barge  of  a  man-of-war,  made  his  way,  fearless  and  unat- 
tended, to  the  shores  of  Labrador,  and  to  a  passage  or  inlet 
north  of  the  entrance  of  Hudson's  Bay.  A  strange  per- 
version has  transferred  the  scene  of  his  discoveries  to  the 
eastern  coast  of  Greenland  ;  it  was  among  a  group  of  Amer- 
ican islands,  in  the  latitude  of  sixty-three  degrees  and  eight 
minutes,  that  he  entered  what  seemed  to  be  a  strait.  Hope 
suggested  that  his  object  was  obtained ;  that  the  land  on  the 
south  was  America ;  on  the  north  was  the  continent  of  Asia ; 
and  that  the  strait  opened  into  the  Pacific.  Great  praise 
is  due  to  Frobisher  for  penetrating  far  beyond  all  former 
mariners  into  the  bays  and  among  the  islands  of  this  Meta 
Incognita,  this  unknown  goal  of  discovery.  Yet  his  voyage 
was  a  failure.  To  land  upon  an  island,  and,  perhaps,  on  the 
main ;  to  gather  up  stones  and  rubbish,  in  token  of  having 
taken  possession  of  the  country  for  Elizabeth ;  to  seize  one 
of  the  natives  of  the  north  for  exhibition  to  the  gaze  of 
Europe,  —  these  were  all  the  results  which  he  accomplished. 

America  and  mines  were  always  thought  of   to- 
gether.    A  stone,  which  had  been  brought  from  the       1577. 
frozen  regions,  was  pronounced  by  the  refiners   of 
London  to  contain  gold.     The  news  excited  the  wakeful 
avarice   of  the   city:    there  were  not  wanting  those  who 
endeavored  to  purchase  of    Elizabeth  a  lease  of  the  new 
lands,  where  it  had  been  found.     A  fleet  was  immediately 
fitted  out,  to  procure  more  of  the  gold,  rather  than  to  make 
further  research  for  the  passage  into  the  Pacific;  and  the 
queen,  who  had  contributed  nothing  to  the  voyage  of  dis- 
covery, sent  a  large  ship  of  her  own  to  join  the  expedition, 
which  was  now  to  conduct  to  infinite  opulence.     More  men 
than  could  be  employed  volunteered  their  services;  those 
who  were  discharged  resigned  their  brilliant  hopes  with 
reluctance.     The  mariners,  having  received  the  com- 
munion, in  May,  1577,  embarked  for  the  arctic  El  May  27. 
Dorado,  "  and  with  a  merrie  wind  "  soon  arrived  at 
the  Orkneys.    As  they  reached  the  north-eastern  coast  of 


70  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

America,  icebergs  encompassed  them  on  every  side ;  but, 
with  the  light  of  an  almost  perpetual  summer's  day,  the 
worst  perils  were  avoided.  Yet  the  mariners  were  alter- 
nately agitated  with  fears  of  shipwreck  and  joy  at  escape. 
At  one  moment  they  expected  death ;  and  at  the  next  they 
looked  for  gold.  The  fleet  made  no  discoveries ;  it  did  not 
advance  so  far  as  Frobisher  alone  had  done.  But  it  found 
large  heaps  o,f  earth,  which,  even  to  the  incredulous,  seemed 
plainly  to  contain  the  coveted  wealth ;  besides,  spiders 
abounded ;  and  "  spiders  were "  affirmed  to  be  "  true  signs 
of  great  store  of  gold."  In  freighting  the  ships,  the  admi- 
ral himself  toiled  like  a  painful  laborer.  How  strange,  in 
human  affairs,  is  the  mixture  of  sublime  courage  and  ludi- 
crous folly !  What  bolder  maritime  enterprise  than,  in  that 
day,  a  voyage  to  lands  lying  north  of  Hudson  Straits ! 
What  folly  more  egregious  than  to  have  gone  there  for  a 
lading  of  useless  earth  ! 

But  the  passion  for  gold,  unrelenting  in  its  pursuit,  is  deaf 
to  the  voice  of  mercy,  and  blind  to  the  cautions  of  judg- 
ment ;  it  can  penetrate  the  prairies  of  Arkansas,  and  covet 
the  moss-grown  barrens  of  the  Esquimaux.  I  have 
1578.  now  to  relate  the  first  attempt  of  the  English,  under 
the  patronage  of  Elizabeth,  to  plant  in  America. 

It  was  believed  that  the  rich  mines  of  the  polar  regions 
would  countervail  the  charges  of  a  costly  adventure;  the 
hope  of  a  passage  to  Cathay  increased ;  and,  for  the  security 
of  the  newly  discovered  lands,  soldiers  and  discreet  men 
were  selected  to  become  their  inhabitants.  A  magnificent 
fleet  of  fifteen  sail  was  assembled,  in  part  at  the  expense 
of  Elizabeth ;  the  sons  of  the  English  gentry  embarked  as 
volunteers;  one  hundred  persons  were  chosen  to  form  the 
colony,  which  was  to  secure  to  England  a  country  too  in- 
hospitable to  produce  a  tree  or  a  shrub,  yet  where  gold  lay 
glistening  in  heaps  upon  the  surface.  Twelve  vessels  were 
to  return  immediately  with  cargoes  of  the  ore ;  three  were 
ordered  to  remain  and  aid  the  settlement.  The  north-west 
passage  was  now  become  of  less  consideration ;  Asia  itself 
could  not  vie  with  the  riches  of  this  hyperborean  archipelago. 

But  the  entrance  to  these  wealthy  islands  was  rendered 


1678.          THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  71 

difficult  by  frost ;  and  the  fleet  of  Frobisher,  as  in  mid- 
summer, 1578,  it  approached  the  American  coast,  M  31 
was  bewildered  among  icebergs,  which  were  so  vast  *° 
that,  as  they  melted,  torrents  poured  from  them  in 
sparkling  waterfalls.  One  vessel  was  crushed  and  sunk, 
though  the  men  on  board  were  saved.  In  the  dangerous 
mists,  the  ships  lost  their  course,  and  came  into  the  straits 
which  have  since  been  called  Hudson's,  and  which  lie  south 
of  the  imagined  gold  regions.  The  admiral  believed  him- 
self able  to  sail  through  to  the  Pacific,  and  resolve  the 
doubt  respecting  the  passage.  But  his  duty  as  a  mercantile 
agent  controlled  his  desire  of  glory  as  a  navigator.  He 
struggled  to  regain  the  harbor  where  his  vessels  were  to  be 
laden ;  and,  after  -"  getting  in  at  one  gap  and  out  at  an- 
other;" escaping  only  by  miracle  from  hidden  rocks  and 
unknown  currents,  ice,  and  a  lee  shore,  which  was,  at  one 
time,  avoided  only  by  a  prosperous  breath  of  wind  in  the 
very  moment  of  extreme  danger,  —  he  at  last  arrived  at 
the  haven  in  the  Countess  of  Warwick's  Sound.  The  zeal 
of  the  volunteer  colonists  had  moderated;  and  the  dis- 
heartened sailors  were  ready  to  mutiny.  One  ship,  laden 
with  provisions  for  the  colony,  deserted  and  returned ;  and 
an  island  was  discovered  with  enough  of  the  black  ore 
"  to  suffice  all  the  gold-gluttons  of  the  world."  The  plan  of 
the  settlement  was  abandoned.  It  remained  to  freight  the 
home-bound  ships  with  a  store  of  minerals.  They  who 
engage  in  a  foolish  project  combine,  in  case  of  failure,  to 
conceal  their  loss ;  for  the  truth  would  be  an  impeachment 
of  their  judgment;  so  that  unfortunate  speculations  are 
promptly  consigned  to  oblivion.  The  adventurers  and  the 
historians  of  the  voyage  are  silent  about  the  disposition 
which  was  made  of  the  cargo  of  the  fleet.  The  knowledge 
of  the  seas  was  not  extended ;  the  credulity  of  avarice  met 
with  a  rebuke ;  and  the  belief  in  regions  of  gold  among  the 
Esqiiimaux  was  dissipated ;  but  there  remained  a  firm  con- 
viction that  a  passage  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  might  yet  be 
threaded  among  the  icebergs  and  northern  islands  of 
America. 

While  Frobisher  was  thus  attempting  to  obtain  wealth 


72  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

and  fame  on  the  north-east  coast  of  America,  the  western 
limits  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States  became  known. 

Embarking   on   a  three   years'  voyage   in   quest   of 

fortune,  Francis  Drake  acquired   immense  treasures 

as  a  freebooter  in  the  Spanish  harbors  on  the  Pacific, 
and,  having  laden  his  ship  with  spoils,  the  illustrious  corsair 
gained  for  himself  an  honest  fame  by  circumnavigating  the 
globe.  But,  before  following  in  the  path  which  the  ship  of 
Magellan  had  thus  far  alone  dared  to  pursue,  Drake  deter- 
mined to  explore  the  north-western  coast  of  America,  in  the 
hope  of  discovering  the  strait  which  connects  the  oceans. 
With  this  view,  he  crossed  the  equator,  sailed  beyond  the 
peninsula  of  California,  and  followed  the  continent  to  the 
latitude  of  forty-three  degrees,  corresponding  to  the  latitude 

of  the  southern  borders  of  New  Hampshire.  Here, 
June.  'm  June?  1579,  the  cold  seemed  intolerable  to  men  who 

had  just  left  the  tropics.  Despairing  of  success,  he 
retired  to  a  harbor  in  a  milder  latitude,  within  the  limits  of 
Mexico ;  and,  having  refitted  his  ship,  and  named  the  country 
New  Albion,  he  sailed  for  England,  through  the  seas  of 
Asia.  Thus  was  the  southern  part  of  the  Oregon  territory 

first  visited  by  Englishmen,  thirty-seven  years  after  a 
1542.  voyage  of  the  Spanish  from  Acapulco,  commanded  by 

Juan  Rodriguez  Cabrillo,  a  Portuguese,  had  entered 
the  harbor  of  San  Diego,  where  in  January,  1543,  he  died. 
But  his  pilot,  Bartolome  Ferrelo,  continued  the  exploration, 
and  traced  the  American  continent  to  within  two  and  a  half 

degrees  of  the  mouth  of  Columbia  River.  The  story 
1593.  that,  thirteen  years  after  the  voyage  of  Drake,  John 

de  Fuca,  a  mariner  from  the  isles  of  Greece,  then  in 
the  employ  of  the  viceroy  of  Mexico,  sailed  into  the  straits 
which  bear  his  name,  may  be  treated  as  a  legend. 

The  adventures  of  Drake  were  but  a  career  of  splen- 

!•><  's.  -j  •  i       •  .  m  Jr 

cl  piracy  against  a  nation  with  which  his  sovereign 
and  his  country  professed  to  be  at  peace.  Oxenham,  a  surbor- 
dmate  officer,  who  had  ventured  to  imitate  his  master,  was 
taken  by  the  Spaniards  and  hanged ;  nor  was  his  punishment 
either  unexpected  or  censured  in  England  as  severe.  The 
exploits  of  Drake,  except  so  far  as  they  nourished  a  love  for 


1578.          THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  73 

maritime  affairs,  were  injurious  to  commerce ;  the  minds  of 
the  sailors  were  debauched  by  a  passion  for  sudden  acquisi- 
tions ;  and  to  receive  regular  wages  seemed  base  and  unmanly, 
when,  at  the  easy  peril  of  life,  there  was  hope  of  boundless 
plunder.  Commerce  and  colonization  rest  on  regular  indus- 
try; the  humble  labor  of  the  English  fishermen,  who  fre- 
quented the  Grand  Bank,  bred  mariners  for  the  navy  of 
their  country,  and  prepared  the  way  for  its  settlements  in 
the  New  World.  Already  four  hundred  vessels  came  annu- 
ally from  the  harbors  of  Portugal  and  Spain,  of  France 
and  England,  to  the  shores  of  Newfoundland.  The  English 
were  not  there  in  such  numbers  as  other  nations,  for  they 
still  frequented  the  fisheries  of  Iceland ;  but  yet  they  "  were 
commonly  lords  in  the  harbors,"  and  exacted  payment  for 
protection. 

While  the  queen  and  her  adventurers  were  dazzled  by 
dreams  of  finding  gold  in  the  frozen  regions  of  the  north, 
Sir  Hvimphrey  Gilbert,  with  a  sounder  judgment  and  better 
knowledge,  watched  the  progress  of  the  fisheries,  and  formed 
healthy  plans  for  colonization.  He  had  been  a  soldier  and  a 
member  of  parliament ;  had  written  judiciously  on  naviga- 
tion ;  and,  though  censured  for  his  ignorance  of  the  princi- 
ples of  liberty,  was  esteemed  for  the  sincerity  of  his  piety. 
Free  alike  from  fickleness  and  fear,  danger  never  turned 
him  aside  from  the  pursuit  of  honor  or  the  service  of  his 
sovereign  ;  for  he  knew  that  death  is  inevitable,  and  the 
fame  of  virtue  immortal.  It  was  not  difficult  for 
him  in  June,  1578,  to  obtain  a  patent,  formed  accord-  June  n. 
ing  to  commercial  theories  of  that  day,  and  to  be 
of  perpetual  efficacy,  if  a  plantation  should  be  established 
within  six  years.  To  the  people  who  might  belong  to  his 
colony,  the  rights  of  Englishmen  were  promised ;  to  Gilbert, 
the  possession  for  himself  or  his  assigns  of  the  soil  which  he 
might  discover,  and  the  sole  jurisdiction,  both  civil  and 
criminal,  of  the  territory  within  two  hundred  leagues  of 
his  settlement,  with  supreme  executive  and  legislative  au- 
thority. 

Under  this  patent,  Gilbert  collected  a  company  of  volun- 
teer adventurers,  contributing  largely  from  his  own  fortune 


74  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  III. 

to  the  preparation.  Jarrings  and  divisions  ensued,  before 
the  voyage  was  begun ;  many  abandoned  what  they 
1579.  had  inconsiderately  undertaken  ;  in  1579,  the  general 
and  a  few  of  his  assured  friends  —  among  them,  his 
Ptep-brother,  Walter  Raleigh  —  put  to  sea  :  one  of  his  ships 
was  lost ;  and  misfortune  compelled  the  remainder  to  return. 
Gilbert  attempted  to  keep  his  patent  alive  by  making  grants 
of  lands:  none  of  his  assigns  succeeded  in  establishing  a 
colony;  and  he  was  himself  too  much  impoverished  to 
renew  his  efforts. 

But  the  pupil  of  Coligny  delighted  in  hazardous  adven- 
ture.    To   prosecute   discoveries  in  the   New  World,  lay 
the  foundation   of  states,  and   acquire   immense   domains, 
appeared  to  Raleigh  as  easy  designs,  which  would  not  inter- 
fere with  the  pursuit  of  favor  in  England.     Before  the  limit 
of  the  charter  had  expired,  Gilbert,  assisted  by  his 
1583.       brother,  equipped  a  new  squadron.     In  1583  the  fleet 
embarked  under  happy  omens;   the  commander,  on 
the  eve  of  his  departure,  received  from  Elizabeth,  as  a  token 
of  regard,  a  golden  anchor  guided  by  a  lady.     A  man  of  let- 
ters from  Hungary  accompanied  the  expedition ;  and  some 
part  of  the  United  States  would  have  then  been  colo- 
june  13.  nized,  but  for  a  succession  of  overwhelming  disasters. 
Two  days  after  leaving  Plymouth,  the  largest  ship  in 
the  fleet,  which  had  been  furnished  by  Raleigh,  who  himself 
remained  in  England,  deserted,  under  a  pretence  of  infec- 
tious disease,  and  returned  into  harbor.     Gilbert,  incensed, 
but  not  intimidated,  sailed  for  Newfoundland ;  and,  in 
Aug.  5.   August,  entering  St.  John's,  he  summoned  the  Span- 
iards and  Portuguese,  and  other  strangers,  to  witness 
the  ceremonies  by  which  he  took  possession  of  the  country 
for  his  sovereign.     A  pillar,  on  which  the  arms  of  England 
were  infixed,  was  raised  as  a  monument;   and  lands  were 
granted  to  the  fishermen  in  fee,  on  condition  of  the  pay- 
ment of  a  quit-rent.     It  was  generally  agreed  that  "the 
mountains  made  a  show  of  mineral  substance ; "   the  "  min- 
eral-man "  of  the  expedition,  an  honest  and  religious  Saxon, 
protested  on  his  life  that   silver   ore   abounded.     He  was 
charged  to  keep  the  discovery  a  profound  secret ;  and  the 


1584.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  75 

precious  ore  was  carried  on  board  the  larger  ship  with  such 
mystery  that  the  dull  Portuguese  and  Spaniards  suspected 
nothing  of  the  matter. 

It  was  not  easy  for  Gilbert  to  preserve  order  in  the  little 
fleet.     Many  of  the  mariners,  infected  with  the  vices  which 
at  that  tune  degraded  their  profession,  were  no  better  than 
pirates,  and  were  perpetually  bent  upon  pillaging  whatever 
ships  fell  in  their  way.     At  length,  having  abandoned  one 
of  their  barks,  the  English,  now  in  three  vessels  only,  sailed 
on  further  discoveries,  intending  to  visit  the  coast  of  the 
United  States.     But  they  had  not  proceeded  towards  the 
south  beyond  the  latitude  of  "Wiscasset,  when  the  largest 
ship,  from  the  carelessness  of  the   crew,  struck   and  was 
wrecked.      Nearly   a  hundred   men    perished ;    the 
"  mineral-man  "  and  the  ore  were  all  lost ;  nor  was  it     1583. 
possible  to  rescue  Parmenius,  the  Hungarian  scholar, 
who  should  have  been  the  historian  of  the  expedition. 

It  now  seemed  necessary  to  hasten  to  England.  Gilbert 
had  sailed  in  the  "  Squirrel,"  a  bark  of  ten  tons  only,  and 
therefore  convenient  for  entering  harbors  and  approaching 
the  coast.  On  the  homeward  voyage,  he  would  not  forsake 
his  little  company,  with  whom  he  had  encountered  so  many 
storms  and  perils.  A  desperate  resolution !  The  weather 
was  extremely  rough;  the  oldest  mariner  had  never  seen 
"  more  outrageous  seas."  The  little  frigate,  not  more  than 
twice  as  large  as  the  long-boat  of  a  merchantman,  "too 
small  a  bark  to  pass  through  the  ocean  sea  at  that  season  of 
the  year,"  was  nearly  wrecked.  That  same  night,  about 
twelve  o'clock,  its  lights  suddenly  disappeared ;  and  neither 
the  vessel,  nor  any  of  its  crew,  was  ever  again  seen. 
The  "  Hind  "  reached  Falmouth  in  safety.  Sept.  22. 

Raleigh,  not  disheartened  by  the  sad  fate  of  his       1584. 
step-brother,  revolved    a  settlement  in    the   milder 
clime   from   which    the   Protestants  of  France    had    been 
expelled.     He  readily   obtained  from   Elizabeth,  in 
March,  1584,  a  patent  as  ample  as  that  which  had  Mar.  25. 
been  conferred  on  Gilbert.     It  was  drawn  according 
to  the  principles  of  feudal  law,  and  with  strict  regard  to 
the  Christian  faith,  as  professed  in  the  church  of  England. 


76  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  UI. 

Raleigh  was  constituted  a  lord  proprietary,  with  almost 
unlimited  powers ;  holding  his  territories  by  homage  and 
an  inconsiderable  rent,  and  possessing  jurisdiction  over  an 
extensive  region,  of  which  he  had  power  to  make  grants 
according  to  his  pleasure. 

Expectations  rose  high,  since  the  balmy  regions  of  the 
south  were  now  to  be  colonized.     Two  vessels,  well  laden 
with  men  and  provisions,   under  the   command   of  Philip 
Amidas  and  Arthur  Barlow,  buoyant  with  hope,  set 
AS?,  sail  for  the  New  World.    They  pursued  the  circuitous 
route  by  the  Canaries  and  the  islands  of  the  West 
Indies ;  after  a  short  stay  in  those  islands,  they  sailed  for 
the  north,   and   were   soon   opposite   the  shores  of 
July  2.    Carolina.     As  in  July  they  drew  near  land,  the  fra- 
grance was  "  as  if  they  had  been  in  the  midst  of  some 
delicate   garden,  abounding  with  all  kinds  of   odoriferous 
flowers."    Ranging  the  coast  for  one  hundred  and  twenty 
miles,  they  entered  the  first  convenient  harbor,  and, 
July  is.  after  thanks  to  God  for  their  safe  arrival,  they  took 

possession  of  the  country  for  the  queen  of  England. 
The  spot  on  which  this  ceremony  was  performed  was  in 
the  Island  of  Wocoken,  the  southernmost  of  the  islands 
forming  Ocracoke  Inlet.  The  shores  of  North  Carolina,  at 
some  periods  of  the  year,  cannot  safely  be  approached  by  a 
fleet,  from  the  hurricanes  against  which  the  formation  of 
the  coast  offers  no  secure  roadsteads  and  harbors.  But  in 
the  month  of  July  the  air  was  agitated  by  none  but  the 
gentlest  breezes,  and  the  English  commanders  were  in  rap- 
tures with  the  beauty  of  the  ocean,  seen  in  the  magnificence 
of  repose,  gemmed  with  islands,  and  expanding  in  the  clear- 
est transparency  from  cape  to  cape.  The  vegetation  of  that 
southern  latitude  struck  the  beholders  with  admiration  ;  the 
trees  had  not  their  paragons ;  luxuriant  climbers  gracefully 
festooned  the  loftiest  cedars ;  wild  grapes  abounded ;  and 
natural  arbors  formed  an  impervious  shade,  that  not  a  ray 
of  the  suns  of  July  could  penetrate.  The  forests  were 
filled  with  birds;  and,  at  the  discharge  of  an  arquebuse, 
whole  flocks  would  arise,  uttering  a  cry,  as  if  an  army  of 
men  had  shouted  together. 


1584.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  77 

The  gentleness  of  the  tawny  inhabitants  appeared  in  har- 
mony with  the  loveliness  of  the  scene.  The  desire  of  traffic 
overcame  their  timidity,  and  the  English  received  a  friendly 
welcome.  On  the  Island  of  Roanoke,  they  were  entertained 
by  the  wife  of  Granganimeo,  father  of  Wingina,  the  king, 
with  the  refinements  of  Arcadian  hospitality.  "  The  people 
were  most  gentle,  loving  and  faithful,  void  of  all  guile 
and  treason,  and  such  as  lived  after  the  manner  of  the 
golden  age."  They  had  no  cares  but  to  guard  against  the 
moderate  cold  of  a  short  winter,  and  to  gather  such  food 
as  the  earth  almost  spontaneously  produced.  And  yet  it 
was  added,  with  singular  want  of  comparison,  that  the  wars 
of  these  guileless  men  were  cruel  and  bloody ;  that  domestic 
dissensions  had  almost  exterminated  whole  tribes  ;  that  they 
employed  the  basest  stratagems  against  their  enemies ;  and 
that  the  practice  of  inviting  men  to  a  feast,  to  murder  them 
in  the  hour  of  confidence,  was  not  exclusively  a  device  of 
European  bigots,  but  was  known  to  the  natives  of  Secotan. 
The  English,  too,  were  solicited  to  engage  in  a  similar  en- 
terprise, under  promise  of  lucrative  booty. 

The  adventurers  were  satisfied  with  observing  the  general 
aspect  of  the  New  World ;  no  extensive  examination  of  the 
coast  was  undertaken ;  Pamlico  and  Albemarle  Sound  and 
Roanoke  Island  were  explored,  and  some  information  gath- 
ered by  inquiries  from  the  Indians;  the  commanders  had 
not  the  courage  or  the  activity  to  survey  the  country  with 
exactness.  Having  made  but  a  short  stay  in  America,  they 
arrived  in  September  in  the  west  of  England,  accompanied 
by  Manteo  and  TVanchese,  two  natives  of  the  wilderness ; 
and  the  returning  voyagers  gave  such  glowing  descriptions 
of  their  discoveries  as  might  be  expected  from  men  who 
had  done  no  more  than  sail  over  the  smooth  waters  of  a 
summer's  sea,  among  "  the  hundred  islands  "  of  North  Caro- 
lina. Elizabeth  esteemed  her  reign  signalized  by  the  dis- 
covery of  the  enchanting  regions,  and,  as  a  memorial  of  her 
state  of  life,  named  them  Virginia. 

Nor  was  it  long  before  Raleigh,  elected  to  represent 
in  parliament  the  county  of  Devon,  obtained  a  bill  r^4j8 
confirming  his  patent  of  discovery ;  and  while  he  re- 


78  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

ceived  the  honor  of  knighthood,  as  the  reward  of  his  valor, 
he  acquired  a  lucrative  monopoly  of  wines,  which  enabled 
him  to  continue  with  vigor  his  schemes.  The  prospect  of 
becoming  the  proprietary  of  a  delightful  territory,  with  a 
numerous  tenantry,  who  should  yield  him  not  only  a  rev- 
enue, but  allegiance,  inflamed  his  ambition;  and,  as  the 
English  nation  listened  with  credulity  to  the  descriptions  of 
Amidas  and  Barlow,  it  was  not  difficult  to  gather  a  numer- 
ous company  of  emigrants.  While  a  new  patent  was  issued 
to  his  friend,  for  the  discovery  of  the  north-western  passage, 
and  the  well-known  voyages  of  Davis,  sustained  in  part  by 
the  contributions  of  Raleigh  himself,  were  increasing  the 
acquaintance  of  Europe  with  the  Arctic  Sea,  the  plan  of 
colonizing  Virginia  was  earnestly  pursued. 

The  new  expedition  was  composed  of  seven  vessels, 

and  carried  one  hundred  and  eight  colonists  to  the 
shores  of  Carolina.  Ralph  Lane,  a  man  of  considerable 
distinction,  and  so  much  esteemed  for  his  services  as  a 
soldier  that  he  was  afterwards  knighted  by  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, was  willing  to  act  for  Raleigh  as  governor  of  the 
colony.  Sir  Richard  Grenville,  the  most  able  and  celebrated 
of  Raleigh's  associates,  distinguished  for  bravery  among 

the  gallant  spirits  of  a  gallant  age,  assumed  the  com- 
ApriiD.  mand  of  the  fleet.  In  April,  1585,  it  sailed  from 

Plymouth,  accompanied  by  several  men  of  merit, 
whom  the  world  remembers:  by  Cavendish,  who  soon 
after  circumnavigated  the  globe;  Hariot,  the  inventor  of 
the  system  of  notation  in  modern  algebra,  the  historian 
of  the  expedition ;  and  White,  an  ingenious  painter,  whose 
sketches  of  the  natives,  their  habits  and  modes  of  life,  were 
taken  with  beauty  and  exactness. 

To  sail  by  the  Canaries  and  the  West  Indies,  to  conduct 
a  gainful  commerce  with  the  Spanish  ports  by  intimidation ; 

to  capture  Spanish  vessels,  —  these  were  but  the  ex- 
june  pected  preliminaries  of  a  voyage  to  Virginia.  In  June 

the  fleet  fell  in  with  the  main  land  of  Florida ;  it  was 

in  great  danger  of  being  wrecked  on  the  cape,  which 
June  26.  was  then  first  called  the  Cape  of  Fear ;  and  two  days 

after  it  came  to  anchor  at  Wocoken.     The  perils 


1585.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  79 

from  the  shoals  of  that  coast  became  too  evident :  the 
largest  ship,  as  it  entered  the  harbor,  struck,  but  was  not 
lost.  It  was  through  Ocracoke  Inlet  that  the  fleet  made  its 
way  to  Roanoke. 

Manteo,  who  returned  with  the  fleet  from  a  visit  to  Eng- 
land,  was   sent   to   the   main   to    announce    their    arrival. 
Grenville,  accompanied  by  Lane,  Harlot,  Cavendish, 
and  others,  in  an  excursion  of  eight  days,  explored      J«iy 
the  coast  as  far  as  Secotan,  and,  as  they  relate,  were 
well  entertained   of  the   savages.    At   one   of  the   Indian 
towns,  a  silver  cup  had  been  stolen ;   its  restoration  was 
delayed ;  with  hasty  cruelty,  Grenville  ordered  the  village 
to  be  burnt  and  the  standing  corn  destroyed.     Not  long 
after  this  act  of   inconsiderate   revenge,  the   ships, 
having  landed  the  colony,  sailed  for  England ;  a  rich  Aug.  25. 
Spanish  prize,   made   by   Grenville    on    the    return 
voyage,  secured  him  a  courteous  welcome  as  he  re-entered 
Plymouth. 

The  employments  of  Lane  and  his  colonists,  after  the 
departure  of  Sir  Richard  Grenville,  could  be  none  other 
than  to  explore  the  country,  which  he  thus  describes : 
"  It  is  the  goodliest  soil  under  the  cope  of  heaven ;  Sept.  a. 
the  most  pleasing  territory  of  the  world ;  the  conti- 
nent is  of  a  huge  and  unknown  greatness,  and  very  well 
peopled  and  towned,  though  savagely.  The  climate  is  so 
wholesome,  that  we  have  not  one  sick,  since  we  touched 
the  land.  If  Virginia  had  but  horses  and  kine,  and  were 
inhabited  with  English,  no  realm  in  Christendom  were  com- 
parable to  it." 

The  keenest  observer  was  Hariot.  He  carefully  examined 
the  productions  of  the  country,  those  which  would  furnish 
commodities  for  commerce,  and  those  which  were  in  esteem 
among  the  natives.  He  observed  the  culture  of  tobacco ; 
accustomed  himself  to  its  use,  and  believed  in  its  healing 
virtues.  The  culture  and  the  extraordinary  productiveness 
of  maize  especially  attracted  his  admiration ;  and  the  tuber- 
ous roots  of  the  potato,  when  boiled,  were  found  to  be  very 
good  food.  The  natural  inhabitants  are  described  as  too 
feeble  to  inspire  terror;  clothed  in  mantles  and  aprons  of 


80  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

deerskins  ;  having  no  weapons  but  wooden  swords  and 
bows  of  Avitch-hazel  with  arrows  of  reeds ;  no  armor  but 
targets  of  bark  and  sticks  wickered  together  with  thread. 
Their  largest  towns  contained  but  thirty  dwellings.  The 
walls  of  the  houses  were  made  of  bark,  fastened  to  stakes ; 
and  sometimes  consisted  of  poles  fixed  upright,  one  by 
another,  and  at  the  top  bent  over  and  fastened.  But  the 
great  peculiarity  of  the  Indians  consisted  in  the  want  of 
political  connection.  A  single  town  often  constituted  a  gov- 
ernment ;  a  collection  of  ten  or  twenty  wigwams  might  be 
an  independent  state.  The  greatest  chief  in  the  country 
could  not  muster  more  than  seven  or  eight  hundred  fighting 
men.  The  dialect  of  each  government  seemed  a  language 
by  itself.  The  country  which  Harlot  explored  was  on  the 
boundary  of  the  Algonkin  race,  where  the  Lenni-Lenape 
tribes  melted  into  the  widely  differing  nations  of  the  south. 
Their  wars  rarely  led  them  to  the  open  battle-field  ;  they 
were  accustomed  rather  to  sudden  surprises  at  daybreak  or 
by  moonlight,  to  ambushes  and  the  subtle  devices  of  cunning 
falsehood.  Destitute  of  the  arts,  they  yet  displayed  excel- 
lency of  wit  in  all  which  they  attempted.  To  the  credulity 
of  fetichism  they  joined  an  undeveloped  conception  of  the 
unity  of  the  Divine  Power,  continued  existence  after  death, 
and  retributive  justice.  The  mathematical  instruments,  the 
burning-glass,  guns,  clocks,  and  the  use  of  letters,  seemed 
the  works  of  gods  rather  than  of  men ;  and  the  English 
were  reverenced  as  the  pupils  and  favorites  of  Heaven.  In 
every  town  which  Harlot  entered,  he  displayed  and  explained 
the  Bible ;  the  Indians  revered  the  volume  rather  than  its 
doctrines ;  with  a  fond  superstition,  they  embraced  the  book, 
kissed  it,  and  held  it  to  their  breasts  and  heads,  as  an  amulet. 
As  the  colonists  enjoyed  uniform  health,  and  had  no  women 
with  them,  there  were  some  among  the  Indians  who  im- 
agined the  English  were  not  born  of  woman,  and  therefore 
not  mortal ;  that  they  were  men  of  an  old  generation,  risen 
to  immortality.  The  terrors  of  fire-arms  the  natives  could 
neither  comprehend  nor  resist;  every  sickness  which  now 
prevailed  among  them  was  attributed  to  wounds  from  invisi- 
ble bullets,  discharged  by  unseen  agents,  with  whom  the  air 


1586.          THE  ENGLISH  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  81 

was  supposed  to  be  peopled.  They  prophesied  that  "  more 
of  the  English  generation  would  come,  to  kill  theirs  and 
take  their  places ; "  and  some  believed  that  the  purpose 
of  extermination  was  already  matured,  and  its  execution 
begun. 

Was  it  strange,  then,  that  the  natives  desired  to  1586. 
be  delivered  from  guests  by  whom  they  feared  to  b"e 
supplanted  ?  The  colonists  were  mad  for  gold ;  and 
a  Avily  savage  allured  them  by  tales :  that  the  river  March. 
Roanoke  gushed  from  a  rock  so  near  the  Pacific  that 
the  surge  of  that  ocean  sometimes  dashed  into  its  fountain ; 
that  its  banks  were  inhabited  by  a  nation  skilled  in  the  art  of 
refining  the  rich  ore  in  which  the  country  abounded.  The 
walls  of  their  city  were  described  as  glittering  with  pearls. 
Lane  was  so  credulous  that  he  attempted  to  ascend  the  rapid 
current  of  the  Roanoke ;  and  his  followers  would  not  re- 
turn till  their  stores  of  provisions  were  exhausted,  and  they 
had  killed  and  eaten  the  very  dogs  which  bore  them  com- 
pany. .On  this  attempt  to  explore  the  interior,  the  English 
hardly  advanced  higher  up  the  river  than  some  point  near 
the  present  village  of  Williamstown. 

The  Indians  had  hoped  to  destroy  the  English  by     April, 
thus  dividing  them  ;  but  the  prompt  return  of  Lane 
prevented  open  hostilities.     They  next  conceived  the  plan 
of  leaving  their  lands  unplanted,  that  famine  might  compel 
the  departure  of  their  too  powerful  guests.     The  suggestion 
was  defeated  by  the  moderation  of  one  of  their  aged 
chiefs ;  but  the  feeling  of  enmity  could  not  be   re-      May. 
strained.     The  English  believed  that  fear  of  a  foreign 
enemy  was  teaching  the  natives  the  necessity  of  union ;  and 
that  a  grand  alliance  was  forming  to  destroy  the  strangers 
by  a  general  massacre.     Desiring  an  audience  of  Wingina, 
the  most  active  among  the  native  chiefs,  Lane  and  his 
attendants  were  on  the  first  day  of  June  readily  ad-  June  i. 
mitted  to  his  presence.     Immediately,  and  without 
any  sign  of  hostile  intentions  by  the  Indians,  a  preconcerted 
watchword  was  given ;  and  the  Christians,  falling  upon  the 
unhappy  king  and  his  principal  followers,  put  them  without 
mercy  to  death. 

VOL.  i.  6 


82  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

The  discoveries  of  Lane  were  inconsiderable  :  to  the  south 
they  had  extended  only  to  Secotan,  in  the  present  county 
of  Craven,  between  the  Pamlico  and  the  Neuse  ;  to  the  north 
they  reached  the  river  Elizabeth,  which  joins  the  Chesa- 
peake Bay  at  Hampton  Koads ;  in  the  interior,  the  Chowan 
had  been  examined  beyond  the  junction  of  the  Meherrin 
and  the  Nottoway;  and  we  have  seen  that  the  hope  of  gold 
attracted  Lane  to  make  a  short  excursion  up  the  Roanoke. 
Yet  some  general  results  of  importance  were  obtained. 
The  climate  was  found  to  be  salubrious;  during  the  year 
not  more  than  four  men  had  died,  and,  of  these,  three 
brought  the  seeds  of  their  disease  from  Europe.  The  hope 
of  finding  better  harbors  at  the  north  was  confirmed ;  and 
the  Bay  of  Chesapeake,  though  so  long  since  discovered  by 
the  Spanish,  was  first  made  known  to  the  English  by  this 
expedition.  But  in  the  Island  of  Roanoke  the  men  began 
to  despond ;  they  looked  in  vain  towards  the  ocean  for  sup- 
plies from  England ;  they  were  sighing  for  their  native 
Jane's,  land;  when  early  in  June  it  was  rumored  that  the 
sea  was  white  with  the  sails  of  three-and-twenty  ships, 
and  within  three  days  Sir  Francis  Drake  anchored  his 
fleet  outside  of  Roanoke  Inlet,  in  "  the  wild  road  of  their 
bad  harbor." 

He  had  come,  on  his  way  from  the  West  Indies  to  Eng- 
land, to  visit  the  domain  of  his  friend  ;  and  readily  supplied 
the  wants  of  Lane  to  the  uttermost ;  giving  him  a  bark  of 
seventy  tons,  with  pinnaces  and  small  boats,  and  all  needed 
provisions  for  the  colony.  Above  all,  he  induced  two  ex- 
perienced sea-captains  to  remain  and  employ  themselves  in 
the  action  of  discovery.  Every  thing  was  furnished  to  com- 
plete the  surveys  along  the  coast  and  the  rivers,  and  in  the 
last  resort,  if  suffering  became  extreme,  to  convey  the  emi- 
grants to  England. 

At  this  time,  an  unwonted  storm  suddenly  arose,  and 
had  nearly  wrecked  the  fleet,  which  lay  in  a  most  dangerous 
position,  and  which  had  no  security  but  in  weighing  anchor 
and  standing  away  from  the  shore.  When  the  tempest  was 
over,  nothing  could  be  found  of  the  boats  and  the  bark, 
which  had  been  set  apart  for  the  colony.  The  humanity  of 


1587.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  83 

Drake  was  not  weary ;  he  devised  measures  for  supplying' 
the  colony  with  the  means  of  continuing  their  discoveries ; 
but  Lane  shared  the  despondency  of  his  men;  and  Drake 
yielded  to  their  unanimous  desire  of  permission   to 
embark  in  his  ships  for  England.     Thus  ended  the  j^{9m 
first   actual  settlement   of  the  English   in  America. 
The  exiles  of  a  year  had  grown  familiar  with  the  favorite 
amusement  of  the  lethargic  Indians;   and  they  introduced 
into  England  the  general  use  of  tobacco. 

A  little  delay  woiild  have  furnished  them  with  ample  sup- 
plies. A  few  days  after  their  departure,  a  ship  arrived, 
laden  with  all  stores  needed  by  the  infant  settlement.  It 
had  been  despatched  by  Raleigh ;  but,  finding  "  the  para- 
dise of  the  world "  deserted,  it  could  only  return  to  Eng- 
land. Another  fortnight  had  hardly  elapsed,  when  Sir 
Richard  Grenville  appeared  off  the  coast  with  three  well- 
furnished  ships,  and  made  a  vain  search  for  the  departed 
colony.  Unwilling  that  the  English  should  lose  possession 
of  the  country,  he  left  fifteen  men  on  the  Island  of  Roanoke, 
to  be  the  guardians  of  their  rights. 

The  decisive  testimony  of  Hariot  to  the  excellence       issr. 
of  the  country  rendered  it  easy  to  collect  a  new  colony 
for  America.      Raleigh,  undismayed  by  losses,  now  deter- 
mined to  plant  an  agricultural  state ;  to  send  emigrants  with 
wives  and  families,  who  should  make  their  homes  in  the  New 
World ;  and,  that  life  and  property  might  be  secured, 
he  granted  a  charter  of  incorporation  for  the  settle-    Jan.  7. 
ment,  and   established  a  municipal  government  for 
"  the  city  of  Raleigh."    John  White  was  appointed  its  gov- 
ernor ;  and  to  him,  with  eleven  assistants,  the  administration 
of  the  colony  was  intrusted.     A  fleet  of  transport  ships  was 
prepared  at  the  expense  of  the  proprietary ;  "  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, the  godmother  of  Virginia,"  declined  contributing  "  to 
its  education."  The  company,  as  it  embarked,  in  April, 
1587,  was  cheered  by  the  presence  of  women;  and  April  26. 
an  ample  provision  of  the  implements  of  husbandry 
gave  a  pledge  for  successful  industry.     In  July,  they  ar- 
rived on  the  coast  of  North  Carolina ;  they  were  saved  from 
the  dangers  of  Cape  Fear ;  and,  passing  Cape  Ilatteras,  they 


84  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

hastened  to  the  Isle  of  Roanoke,  to  search  for  the  handful 
of  men  whom  Grenville  had  left  there  as  a  garrison.  They 
found  the  tenements  deserted  and  overgrown  with  weeds ; 
human  bones  lay  scattered  on  the  field  where  wild  deer 
were  reposing.  The  fort  was  in  ruins.  No  vestige  of 
surviving  life  appeared. 

The  instructions  of  Raleigh  had  designated  the  place  for 
the  new  settlement  on  the  Bay  of  the  Chesapeake.  It 
marks  but  little  union,  that  Fernando,  the  naval  officer, 
eager  to  renew  a  profitable  traffic  in  the  West  Indies,  re- 
fused his  assistance  in  exploring  the  coast,  and  White  was 
compelled  to  remain  on  Roanoke.  The  fort  of  Governor 
Lane,  "  with  sundry  decent  dwelling-houses,"  had  been  built 
at  the  northern  extremity  of  the  island ;  it  was  there 
ju?8723  tnat  'm  ^uty  ^6  foundations  of  the  city  of  Raleigh 
were  laid.  The  island  is  now  almost  uninhabited; 
commerce  has  selected  securer  harbors ;  the  intrepid  pilot 
and  the  hardy  "  wrecker  "  are  the  only  occupants  of  the  spot, 
where  the  inquisitive  stranger  may  yet  discern  the  ruins  of 
the  fort,  round  which  the  cottages  of  the  new  settlement 
were  erected. 

But  disasters  thickened.  A  tribe  of  savages  dis- 
played implacable  jealousy,  and  murdered  one  of  the 
assistants.  The  mother  and  the  kindred  of  Manteo  wel- 
comed the  English  to  the  Island  of  Croatan ;  and  mutual 
good-will  was  continued.  But  even  this  alliance  was  not 
unclouded.  A  detachment  of  the  English,  discovering  a 
company  of  the  natives  whom  they  esteemed  their  enemies, 
fell  upon  them  by  night,  as  they  were  sitting  by  their  fires  ; 
and  the  havoc  was  begun,  before  it  was  perceived  that  these 
were  friendly  Indians. 

A     13       The  vanities  of  life  were  not  forgotten ;  "  by  the 
'  commandment  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,"  Manteo,  the 
faithful  Indian  chief,  after  receiving  Christian  baptism,  was 
invested  with  the  rank  of  baron,  as  the  Lord  of  Roanoke. 

With  the  returning  ship,  White  embarked  for  England  to 

intercede  for  the  prompt  despatch  of  re-enforcements  and 

supplies.  Yet,  previous  to  his  departure,  his  daughter, 

Aug.  is.  Eleanor  Dare,  the  wife  of  one  of  the  assistants,  gave 


1588.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  85 

birth  to  a  female  child,  the  first  offspring  of  English  parents 
on  the  soil  of  the  United  States.  The  infant  was  named 
from  the  place  of  its  birth.  The  colony,  now  composed  of 
eighty-nine  men,  seventeen  women,  and  two  children,  whose 
names  are  all  preserved,  might  reasonably  hope  for 
the  speedy  return  of  the  governor,  as  he  left  with  them  August, 
his  daughter  and  his  grandchild,  VIBGLSTIA  DABE. 

Yet  even  those  ties  were  insufficient.  The  further  history 
of  this  neglected  plantation  is  involved  in  gloomy  uncer- 
tainty. The  inhabitants  of  "  the  city  of  Raleigh,"  the 
emigrants  from  England  and  the  first-born  of  America, 
awaited  death  in  the  land  of  their  adoption.  If  America 
had  no  English  town,  it  soon  had  English  graves. 

For  when  White  reached  England,  he  found  its  attention 
absorbed  by  the  threats  of  an  invasion  from  Spain ;  and 
Grenville,  Raleigh,  and  Lane,  not  less  than  Frobisher, 
Drake,  and  Hawkins,  were  engaged  in  measures  of  resist- 
ance. Yet  Raleigh,  whose  patriotism  did  not  diminish  his 
generosity,  found  means  to  despatch  White  with  sup- 
plies in  two  vessels.  But  the  company,  desiring  a  gain- 
f  ul  voyage  rather  than  a  safe  one,  ran  in  chase  of  prizes, 
till  one  of  them  fell  in  with  men-of-war  from  Rochelle,  and, 
after  a  bloody  fight,  was  boarded  and  rifled.  Both  ships  were 
compelled  to  return  immediately  to  England,  to  the  ruin  of 
the  colony  and  the  displeasure  of  its  author.  The  delay 
was  fatal :  the  English  kingdom  and  the  Protestant  reforma- 
tion were  in  danger ;  nor  could  the  poor  colonists  of  Roa- 
noke  be  again  remembered,  till  after  the  discomfiture  of  the 
Invincible  Armada. 

Even  then,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  who  had  already  incurred 
a  fruitless  expense  of  forty  thousand  pounds,  found  his  im- 
paired fortune  insufficient  for  further  attempts  at  colonizing 
Virginia.  He  therefore  used  the  privilege  of  his  patent  to 
endow  a  company  of  merchants  and  adventurers  with  large 
concessions.  Among  the  men  who  thus  obtained  an  assign- 
ment of  the  proprietary's  rights  in  Virginia,  is  found  the 
name  of  Richard  Hakluyt;  it  connects  the  first  efforts  of 
England  in  North  Carolina  with  the  final  colonization  of  Vir- 
ginia. The  colonists  at  Roanoke  had  emigrated  with  a  charter  j 


86  COLONIAL    HISTORY.  CHAP.  HI. 

1589  the  new  instrument  was  not  an  assignment  of  Ra- 
MarciiT.  ieigh'8  patent,  but  the  extension  of  a  grant,  already 
held  under  its  sanction,  by  increasing  the  number  to  whom 
the  rights  of  that  charter  belonged. 

More  than  another  year  elapsed,  before  White 
3590  could  return  to  search  for  his  colony  and  his  daughter ; 
and  then  the  Island  of  Roanoke  was  a  desert.  An  inscrip- 
tion on  the  bark  of  a  tree  pointed  to  Croatan;  but  the 
season  of  the  year  and  the  dangers  from  storms  were 
pleaded  as  an  excuse  for  an  immediate  return.  Had  the 
emigrants  already  perished  ?  or  had  they  escaped  with  their 
lives  to  Croatan,  and  through  the  friendship  of  Manteo  be- 
come familiar  with  the  Indians?  The  conjecture  has  been 
hazarded  that  the  deserted  colony,  neglected  by  their  own 
countrymen,  were  hospitably  adopted  into  the  tribe  of  Hat- 
teras  Indians.  Raleigh  long  cherished  the  hope  of  discover- 
ing some  vestiges  of  their  existence,  and  sent  at  his  own 
charge,  and,  it  is  said,  at  five  several  times,  to  search  for  his 
liege-men.  But  it  was  all  in  vain;  imagination  received 
no  help  in  its  attempts  to  trace  the  fate  of  the  colony  of 
Roanoke. 

The  name  of  Raleigh  stands  highest  among  the  statesmen 
of  England  who  advanced  the  colonization  of  the  United 
States.  Courage  which  was  never  daunted,  mild  self-posses- 
eion,  and  fertility  of  invention,  insured  him  glory  in  his 
profession  of  arms ;  and  his  services  in  the  conquest  of 
Cadiz  and  the  capture  of  Fayal  established  his  fame  as  a 
gallant  and  successful  commander. 

No  soldier  in  retirement  ever  expressed  the  charms  of 
tranquil  leisure  more  beautifully  than  Raleigh,  whose 
"sweet  verse"  Spenser  described  as  "sprinkled  with  nec- 
tar," and  rivalling  the  melodies  of  "  the  summer's  nightin- 
gale." When  an  unjust  verdict  left  him  to  languish  for 
years  in  prison,  with  the  sentence  of  death  suspended  over 
his  head,  his  active  genius  plunged  into  the  depths  of 
erudition;  and  he  who  had  been  a  warrior,  a  courtier, 
and  a  seaman,  became  the  author  of  an  elaborate  History 
of  the  World.  In  his  civil  career  he  was  thoroughly 
an  English  patriot;  jealous  of  the  honor,  the  prosperity, 


1590.          THE   ENGLISH  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES.  87 

and  the  advancement  of  his  country ;  the  steadfast  antago- 
nist of  the  exorbitant  pretensions  of  Spain.  In  parliament, 
he  defended  the  freedom  of  domestic  industry.  When, 
through  unequal  legislation,  taxation  was  a  burden  upon 
industry  rather  than  wealth,  he  argued  for  a  change  ;  himself 
possessed  of  a  lucrative  monopoly,  he  gave  his  voice  for  the 
repeal  of  all  monopolies;  he  used  his  influence  with  his 
sovereign  to  mitigate  the  severity  of  the  judgments  against 
the  non-conformists,  and  as  a  legislator  he  resisted  the 
sweeping  enactment  of  persecuting  laws. 

In  the  career  of  discovery,  his  perseverance  was  never 
baffled  by  losses.  He  joined  in  the  risks  of  Gilbert's  expe- 
dition ;  contributed  to  that  of  Davis  in  the  north-west ;  and 
explored  in  person  "  the  insular  regions  and  broken  world  " 
of  Guiana.  His  lavish  efforts  in  colonizing  the  soil  of  our 
republic,  his  sagacity  which  enjoined  a  settlement  within 
the  Chesapeake  Bay,  the  publications  of  Hariot  and  Hakluyt 
which  he  countenanced,  diffused  over  England  a  knowledge 
of  America,  as  well  as  an  interest  in  its  destinies,  and  sowed 
the  seeds,  of  which  the  fruits  were  to  ripen  during  his  life- 
time, though  not  for  him. 

Raleigh  had  suffered  in  health  before  his  last  expedition. 
He  returned  broken-hearted  by  the  defeat  of  his  hopes,  by 
the  decay  of  his  strength,  and  by  the  death  of  his  eldest 
son.  What  shall  be  said  of  King  James,  who  would  open 
to  an  aged  paralytic  no  other  hope  of  liberty  but  through 
success  in  the  discovery  of  mines  in  Guiana  ?  What  shall 
be  said  of  a  monarch  who  could,  at  that  time,  under  a  sen- 
tence which  had  slumbered  for  fifteen  years,  order  the  exe- 
cution of  the  decrepit  man,  whose  genius  and  valor  shone 
through  the  ravages  of  physical  decay,  and  whose  English 
heart  still  beat  with  an  undying  love  for  his  country. 

The  family  of  the  chief  author  of  early  colonization  in 
the  United  States  was  reduced  to  beggary  by  the  govern- 
ment  of  England,  and  he  himself  was  beheaded.     After 
a  lapse  of  nearly  two  centuries,  the  state  of  North 
Carolina,  in  1792,  revived  in  its  capital  "  THE  CITY  OF      1792. 
RALEIGH,"  in  grateful  commemoration  of  his  name 
and  fame. 


88  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

Imagination  already  saw  beyond  the  Atlantic  a  people 
whose  mother  idiom  should  be  the  language  of  England. 
"  Who  knows,"  exclaimed  Daniel,  the  poet  laureate  of  that 
kingdom,  — 

Who  in  time  knows  whither  we  may  vent 
The  treasures  of  our  tongue  ?    To  what  strange  shores 
This  gain  of  our  best  glory  shall  be  sent 
T'  enrich  unknowing  nations  with  our  stores  ? 
What  worlds,  in  th'  yet  unformed  Occident, 
May  'come  refined  with  th'  accents  that  are  ours. 

Already  the  fishing  of  Newfoundland  was  become 
the  stay  of  the  west  countries.     Some  traffic  may  have 
continued  with  Virginia.     Thus  were  men  trained  for  the 
career  of  discovery ;  and  in  1602  Bartholomew  Gosnold,  who, 
perhaps,  had  already  sailed  to  Virginia,  in  the  usual  route, 
by  the  Canaries  and  West  Indies,  conceiving  the  idea  of  a 
direct  voyage  to  America,  with  the  concurrence  of  Raleigh, 
had  well-nigh  secured  to  New  England  the  honor  of 
Mar°226.  ^e  ^rs^  permanent  English  colony.     Steering,  in  a 
small  bark,  directly  across  the  Atlantic,  in  seven  weeks 
he  reached  Cape  Elizabeth,  on  the  coast  of  Maine.   Following 
the  coast  to  the  south-west,  he  skirted  "  an  outpoint 
May  14.  of  wooded  land ; "  and,  about  noon  of  the  fourteenth 
of  May,  he  anchored  "  near  Savage  rock,"  to  the  east 
of  York  harbor.     There  he  met  a  Biscay  shallop  ;  and  there 
he  was  visited  by  natives.      Not  finding  his   "purposed 
place,"  he  stood  to  the  south,  and  on  the  morning  of 
May  15.  the  fifteenth  discovered  the  promontory  which  he 
named  Cape  Cod.     He  and  four  of  his  men  went  on 
shore ;  Cape  Cod  was  the  first  spot  in  New  England  ever 
trod  by  Englishmen,  while  as  yet  there  was  not  one  Euro- 
pean family  on  the  continent  from  Florida  to  Hud- 
May  24.  son's  Bay.    Doubling  the  cape,  and  passing  Nantucket, 
they  touched  at  No  Man's  Land,  passed  round  the' 
promontory  of  Gay  Head,  naming  it  Dover  Cliff,  and  en- 
tered Buzzard's   Bay,  a  stately  sound,  which  they  called 
Gosnold's  Hope.     The  westernmost  of  the  islands  was  named 
Elizabeth,  from  the  queen ;  a  name  which  has  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  group.    Here  they  beheld  the  rank  vegetation 


1603.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED   STATES.  89 

of  a  virgin  soil :  noble  forests ;  wild  fruits  and  flowers, 
bursting  from  the  earth ;  the  eglantine,  the  thorn,  and  the 
honeysuckle,  the  wild  pea,  the  tansy,  and  young  sassa- 
fras ;  strawberries,  raspberries,  grape-vines,  all  in  profusion. 
Within  a  pond  upon  the  island  lies  a  rocky  islet ;  on  this 
the  adventurers  built  their  storehouse  and  their  fort ;  and 
the  foundations  of  the  first  New  England  colony  were  laid. 
The  island,  the  pond,  the  islet,  are  yet  visible;  the  shrubs 
are  luxuriant  as  of  old ;  but  the  forests  are  gone,  and  the 
ruins  of  the  fort  can  no  longer  be  discerned. 

A  traffic  with  the  natives  on  the  main  enabled  Gosnold 
to  lade  the  "  Concord  "  with  sassafras  root,  then  esteemed  in 
pharmacy  as  a  sovereign  panacea.  The  band,  which  was  to 
have  nestled  on  the  Elizabeth  Islands,  finding  their  friends 
about  to  embark  for  Europe,  despaired  of  supplies  of  food, 
and  determined  not  to  remain.  Fear  of  the  Indians,  who  had 
ceased  to  be  friendly,  the  want  of  provisions,  and  jealousy 
respecting  the  distribution  of  the  risks  and  profits,  de- 
feated the  design.  The  party  soon  set  sail,  and  bore  ju^fj8> 
for  England,  leaving  not  so  much  as  one  European  fam- 
ily between  Florida  and  Labrador.  The  return  voyage  lasted 
but  five  weeks ;  and  the  expedition  was  completed  in  less 
than  four  months,  during  which  entire  health  had  prevailed. 

Gosnold  and  his  companions  spread  the  most  favorable 
reports  of  the  regions  which  he  had  visited.  Could  it  be 
that  the  voyage  was  so  safe,  the  climate  so  pleasant,  the 
country  so  inviting?  The  merchants  of  Bristol,  with  the 
ready  assent  of  Raleigh,  and  at  the  instance  of  Richard 
Hakluyt,  the  enlightened  friend  and  able  documentary  his- 
torian of  these  commercial  enterprises,  a  man  whose  fame 
should  be  vindicated  and  asserted  in  the  land  which  he 
helped  to  colonize,  determined  to  pursue  the  career  of  in- 
vestigation. The  "  Speedwell,"  a  ship  of  fifty  tons  and 
thirty  men,  the  "  Discoverer,"  a  bark  of  twenty-six  tons  and 
thirteen  men,  under  the  command  of  Martin  Pring, 
set  sail  for  America  a  few  days  after  the  death  of  the  XpiMU). 
queen.  It  was  a  private  undertaking,  and  therefore 
not  retarded  by  that  event.  The  ship  was  well  provided 
with  trinkets  and  merchandise,  suited  to  a  traffic  with  the 


90  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

natives;  and  this  voyage  also  was  successful.  It  reached 
the  American  coast  among  the  islands  of  Penobscot  Bay ; 
coasting  towards  the  west,  Pring  made  a  discovery  of  many 
of  the  harbors  of  Maine ;  of  the  Saco,  the  Kennebunk,  and 
the  York  Rivers;  and  the  channel  of  the  Piscataqua  WMS 
examined  for  three  or  four  leagues.  Finding  no  sassafras, 
he  steered  to  the  south,  doubled  Cape  Ann,  and  went  on 
shore  in  Massachusetts;  but,  being  still  unsuccessful,  he 
again  pursued  a  southerly  track,  till  he  anchored  in  Old 
Town  harbor,  on  Martha's  Vineyard.  Here  obtaining  a 
freight,  he  returned  to  England,  after  an  absence  of  about 
six  months,  which  had  been  free  from  disaster  or  danger. 

The  testimony  of  Pring  having  confirmed  the  re- 
1605.  port  of  Gosnold,  an  expedition,  promoted  by  the 
Earl  of  Southampton  and  his  brother-in-law  Lord 
Arundel  of  Wardour,  was  confided  to  George  Waymouth, 
a  careful  and  vigilant  commander,  who,  in  attempting  a 
north-west  passage,  had  already  explored  the  coast  of  Lab- 
rador. 

Weighing  anchor  on  Easter  Sunday,  on  the  fourteenth  of 
May  he  came  near  the  whitish,  sandy  promontory  of  Cape 
Cod.  To  escape  the  continual  shoals  in  which  he  found 
himself  embayed,  he  stood  out  to  sea,  then  turned  to  the 
north,  and  on  the  seventeenth  anchored  to  the  north  of 
Monhegan  Island,  in  sight  of  hills  to  the  north-north-cast 
on  the  main.  On  Whit-Sunday  he  found  his  way  among 
the  St.  George's  Islands  into  an  excellent  harbor,  which  was 
accessible  by  four  passages,  defended  from  all  winds,  and 
had  good  mooring  upon  a  clay  ooze  and  even  upon  the 
rocks  by  the  cliff  side.  The  climate  was  agreeable ;  the 
sea  yielded  fish  of  many  kinds  profusely ;  the  tall  and  great 
trees  on  the  islands  were  much  observed;  and  the  gum 
of  the  silver  fir  was  thought  to  be  as  fragrant  as  frankin- 
cense; some  trade  was  carried  on  with  the  natives  for 
sables,  and  skins  of  deer  and  otter  and  beaver;  the  land 
was  of  such  pleasantness  that  many  of  the  company  Avished 
themselves  settled  there.  Having  in  the  last  of  May  dis- 
covered in  his  pinnace  the  broad,  deep  current  of  the  St. 
George's,  on  the  eleventh  of  June  Waymouth  passed  with  a 


1605.         THE  ENGLISH  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  01 

gentle  wind  up  with  the  ship  into  that  river  for  about 
eighteen  miles,  which  were  reckoned  at  six -and -twenty, 
and  "  all  consented  in  joy "  to  admire  its  width  of  a  half 
mile  or  a  mile ;  its  verdant  banks  ;  its  gallant  and  spacious 
coves  ;  the  strength  of  its  tide,  which  may  have  risen  nine 
or  ten  feet,  and  was  set  down  at  eighteen  or  twenty.  On 
the  thirteenth,  he  ascended  in  a  row-boat  ten  miles  further, 
and  the  discoverers  were  more  and  more  pleased  with  the 
beauty  of  the  fertile  bordering  ground.  No  token  was 
found  that  ever  any  Christian  had  been  there  before ;  and 
at  the  point  where  the  river  trends  westward  into  the  main 
he  set  up  a  memorial  cross,  as  he  had  already  done  on  the 
rocky  shore  of  the  St.  George's  Islands.  Well  satisfied 
with  his  discoveries,  on  Sunday  the  sixteenth  of  June  he 
sailed  for  England,  taking  with  him  five  of  the  natives 
whom  he  had  decoyed,  to  be  instructed  in  English,  and  to 
serve  as  guides  to  some  future  expedition.  At  his  coming 
into  the  harbor  of  Plymouth,  he  yielded  up  three  of  the 
natives  to  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  the  governor  of  that 
town,  whose  curiosity  was  thus  directed  to  the  shores  of 
Maine.  The  returning  voyagers  celebrated  its  banks,  which 
promised  most  profitable  fishing ;  its  rude  people,  who  were 
willing  to  barter  costly  furs  for  trifles ;  the  temperate  and 
healthful  air  of  the  country,  whose  "pleasant  fertility  be- 
wrayed itself  to  be  the  garden  of  nature."  But  it  was  not 
these  which  tempted  Gorges.  He  had  noticed  that  all 
navigations  of  the  English  along  the  more  southerly  Amer- 
ican coast  had  failed  from  the  want  of  good  roads  and 
harbors ;  these  were  the  special  marks  at  which  he  levelled ; 
and  hearing  of  a  region,  safe  of  approach  and  abounding  in 
harbors  large  enough  to  shelter  the  ships  of  all  Christendom, 
he  aspired  to  the  noble  oflice  of  filling  it  with  prosperous 
English  plantations. 

Such  were  the  voyages  which  led  the  way  to  the  coloniza- 
tion of  the  United  States.  The  daring  and  ability  of  these 
pioneers  upon  the  ocean  deserve  the  highest  admiration.  The 
character  of  the  prevalent  winds  and  currents  was  unknown. 
The  possibility  of  making  a  direct  passage  was  but  gradu- 
ally discovered.  The  imagined  dangers  were  infinite ;  the 


92  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  III. 

real  dangers  incalculable  from  tempests  and  shipwreck, 
famine  and  mutinies,  heat  and  cold,  diseases  known  and 
unknown.  The  ships  at  first  employed  were  generally  of 
less  than  one  hundred  tons'  burden ;  two  of  those  of  Col- 
umbus were  without  a  deck ;  Frobisher  sailed  in  a  vessel  of 
but  twenty-five  tons.  Columbus  was  cast  away  twice,  and 
once  remained  for  eight  months  on  an  island,  without  any 
communication  with  the  civilized  world ;  Roberval,  Par- 
menius,  Gilbert,  —  and  how  many  others !  —  went  down  at 
sea;  and  such  was  the  state  of  the  art  of  navigation  that 
intrepidity  and  skill  were  unavailing  against  the  elements 
without  the  favor  of  Heaven. 


1606.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  93 


CHAPTER  IV. 

COLOOTZATION  OF  VIRGINIA. 

THE  period  of  success  in  planting  Virginia  had 
arrived ;  yet  not  till  changes  in  European  politics  and  1606. 
society  had  moulded  the  forms  of  colonization.  The 
Reformation  had  broken  the  harmony  of  religious  opin- 
ion ;  and  differences  in  the  church  began  to  constitute  the 
basis  of  political  parties.  After  the  East  Indies  had  been 
reached  by  doubling  the  southern  promontory  of  Africa,  the 
great  commerce  of  the  world  was  carried  upon  the  ocean. 
The  art  of  printing  had  been  perfected  and  diffused ;  and 
the  press  spread  intelligence  and  multiplied  the  facilities  of 
instruction.  The  feudal  institutions,  which  had  been  reared 
in  the  middle  ages,  were  already  undermined  by  the  current 
of  time  and  events,  and,  swaying  from  their  base,  threatened 
to  fall.  Productive  industry  had  built  up  the  fortunes  and 
extended  the  influence  of  the  active  classes ;  while  habits  of 
indolence  and  expense  had  impaired  the  estates  and  dimin- 
ished the  power  of  the  nobility.  These  changes  produced 
corresponding  results  in  the  institutions  which  were  to  rise 
in  America. 

A  revolution  had  equally  occurred  in  the  purposes  for 
which  voyages  were  undertaken.  The  hope  of  Columbus, 
as  he  sailed  to  the  west,  had  been  the  discovery  of  a  new 
passage  to  the  East  Indies.  The  passion  for  gold  next 
became  the  prevailing  motive.  Then  the  islands  and  coun- 
tries near  the  equator  were  made  the  tropical  gardens  of  the 
Europeans.  At  last,  the  higher  design  was  matured :  to 
plant  permanent  Christian  colonies;  to  establish  for  the 
oppressed  and  the  enterprising  places  of  refuge  and  abode ; 
to  found  states  in  a  temperate  clime,  with  all  the  elements 
of  independent  existence. 

In  the  imperfect  condition  of  industry,  a  redundant  pop- 


94  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV 

ulation  had  existed  in  England  even  before  the  peace  with 
Spain,  which  threw  out  of  employment  the  gallant  men 
who  had  served  under  Elizabeth  by  sea  and  land,  and  left 
them  no  option  but  to  engage  as  mercenaries  in  the  quar- 
rels of  strangers,  or  incur  the  hazards  of  "  seeking  a  New 
World."  The  minds  of  many  persons  of  intelligence  and 
rank  were  directed  to  Virginia.  The  brave  and  ingenious 
Gosnold,  who  had  himself  witnessed  the  fertility  of  the 
western  soil,  long  solicited  the  concurrence  of  his  friends 
for  the  establishment  of  a  colony,  and  at  last  prevailed  with 
Edward  Maria  Wingfield,  a  merchant  of  the  west  of  Eng- 
land, Robert  Hunt,  a  clergyman  of  fortitude  and  modest 
worth,  and  John  Smith,  an  adventurer  of  rarest  qualities, 
to  risk  their  lives  and  hopes  of  fortune  in  an  expedition. 
For  more  than  a  year,  this  little  company  revolved  the 
project  of  a  plantation.  At  the  same  time,  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges  was  gathering  information  of  the  native  Americans, 
whom  he  had  received  from  Waymouth,  and  whose  descrip- 
tions of  the  country,  joined  to  the  favorable  views  which 
he  had  already  imbibed,  filled  him  with  the  strongest  desire 
of  becoming  a  proprietary  of  domains  beyond  the  Atlantic. 
Gorges  was  a  man  of  wealth,  rank,  and  influence ;  he  readily 
persuaded  Sir  John  Popham,  lord  chief  justice  of  England, 
to  share  his  intentions.  Nor  had  the  assigns  of  Raleigh 
become  indifferent  to  "  western  planting ; "  which  the  most 
distinguished  of  them  all,  "  industrious  Hakluyt,"  the  histo- 
rian of  maritime  enterprise,  still  promoted  by  his  personal 
exertions,  his  weight  of  character,  and  his  invincible  zeal. 
Possessed  of  whatever  information  could  be  derived  from 
foreign  sources  and  a  correspondence  with  eminent  naviga- 
tors of  his  times,  and  anxiously  watching  the  progress  of 
Englishmen  in  the  west,  his  extensive  knowledge  made  him 
a  counsellor  in  every  colonial  enterprise. 

The  ^king  of  England,  too  timid  to  be  active,  yet  too  vain 
to  be  indifferent,  favored  the  design  of  enlarging  his  do- 
minions. He  had  attempted  in  Scotland  the  introduction 
of  the  arts  of  life  among  the  Highlanders  and  the  Western 
Isles,  by  the  establishment  of  colonies;  and  the  Scottish 
plantations  which  he  founded  in  the  northern  counties  of 


1006.  COLONIZATION   OF    VIRGINIA.  95 

Ireland  contributed  to  the  affluence  and  the  security  of  that 
island.  When,  therefore,  a  company  of  men  of  business 
and  men  of  rank,  formed  by  the  experience  of  Gosnold,  the 
enthusiasm  of  Smith,  the  perseverance  of  Hakluyt,  the 
influence  of  Popham  and  Gorges,  applied  to  James  I. 
for  leave  "to  deduce  a  colony  into  Yirgmii,"  the 
monarch  on  the  tenth  of  April,  1606,  readily  set  his 
seal  to  an  ample  patent. 

The  first  colonial  charter,  under  which  the  English  were 
planted  in  America,  deserves  careful  consideration.  A  belt 
of  twelve  degrees  on  the  American  coast,  embracing  the 
soil  from  Cape  Fear  to  Halifax,  excepting  perhaps  the  little 
spot  in  Acadia  then  actually  possessed  by  the  French,  was 
set  apart  to  be  colonized  by  two  rival  companies.  Of  these, 
the  first  was  composed  of  noblemen,  gentlemen,  and  mer- 
chants, in  and  about  London ;  the  second,  of  knights, 
gentlemen,  and  merchants,  in  the  west.  The  London  ad- 
venturers, who  alone  succeeded,  had  an  exclusive  right  to 
occupy  the  regions  from  thirty-four  to  thirty-eight  degrees 
of  north  latitude,  that  is,  from  Cape  Fear  to  the  southern 
limit  of  Maryland  ;  the  western  men  had  equally  an  exclu- 
sive right  to  plant  between  forty-one  and  forty-five  degrees. 
The  intermediate  district,  from  thirty-eight  to  forty-one 
degrees,  was  open  to  the  competition  of  both  companies. 
Yet  collision  was  not  probable  ;  for  each  was  to  possess  the 
soil  extending  fifty  miles  north  and  south  of  its  first  settle- 
ment ;  so  that  neither  might  in  the  beginning  plant  within 
one  hundred  miles  of  its  rival.  The  conditions  of  tenure 
were  homage  and  rent ;  the  rent  was  no  other  than  one  fifth 
of  the  net  produce  of  gold  and  silver,  and  one  fifteenth  of 
copper.  The  right  of  coining  money  was  conceded,  perhaps 
to  facilitate  commerce  with  the  natives,  who,  it  was  hoped, 
would  receive  Christianity  and  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 
The  general  superintendence  was  confided  to  a  council  in 
England ;  the  local  administration  of  each  colony  to  a  resi- 
dent council.  The  members  of  the  superior  council  in 
England  were  appointed  exclusively  by  the  king ;  and  the 
tenure  of  their  office  was  his  good  pleasure.  Of  the  colo- 
nial councils,  the  members  were  from  time  to  time  to  be 


96  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

ordained,  made,  and  removed,  according  to  his  instructions. 
Supreme  legislative  authority  over  the  colonies,  extending 
to  their  general  condition  and  the  most  minute  regulations, 
was  reserved  to  the  monarch.  A  duty,  to  be  levied  on 
vessels  trading  to  its  harbors,  was,  for  one-and-twenty  years, 
to  be  wholly  employed  for  the  benefit  of  the  plantation ;  at 
the  end  of  that  time  was  to  be  taken  for  the  king.  To  the 
emigrants  it  was  promised  that  they  and  their  children 
should  continue  to  be  Englishmen.  Lands  were  to  be  held 
by  the  most  favorable  tenure. 

The  first  written  charter  of  a  permanent  American  colony, 
which  was  to  be  the  chosen  abode  of  liberty,  gave  to  the 
mercantile  corporation  nothing  but  a  desert  territory,  with 
the  right  of  peopling  and  defending  it,  and  reserved  to  the 
monarch  absolute  legislative  authority,  the  control  of  all 
appointments,  and  a  hope  of  an  ultimate  revenue.  The 
emigrants  were  subjected  to  the  ordinances  of  a  commercial 
corporation,  of  which  they  could  not  be  members ;  to  the 
dominion  of  a  domestic  council,  in  appointing  which  they 
had  no  voice ;  to  the  control  of  a  superior  council  in  Eng- 
land, which  had  no  sympathies  with  their  rights ;  and,  final- 
ly, to  the  arbitrary  legislation  of  the  sovereign.  The  first 
"  treasurer  "  or  governor  of  the  London  company,  to  whom 
chiefly  fell  the  management  of  its  affairs,  was  Sir  Thomas 
Smythe,  a  merchant  zealous  for  extending  the  commerce  of 
his  country,  but  without  a  conception  of  popular  rights,  and 
not  in  the  least  inclined  by  his  character  to  mitigate  the 
authority  of  the  corporation. 

The  summer  was  spent  by  the  patentees  in  preparations 
for  planting  a  colony,  for  which  the  king  found  a 
Nov.  20.  gratef ul  occupation  in  framing  a  code  of  laws ;  an 
exercise  of  royal  power  which  has  been  pronounced 
in  itself  illegal.  The  superior  council  in  England  was  per- 
mitted to  name  the  colonial  council,  which  was  independent 
of  the  emigrants  whom  it  was  to  govern ;  having  power  to 
elect  or  remove  its  president,  to  remove  any  of  its  members, 
and  to  supply  its  own  vacancies.  Not  an  element  of  popular 
liberty  was  introduced.  Religion  was  established  according 
to  the  doctrine  and  rites  of  the  church  within  the  realm ; 


1606.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  97 

and  no  emigrant  might  avow  dissent,  or  aftect  the  super- 
stitions of  the  church  of  Rome,  or  withdraw  his  allegiance 
from  King  James.  Lands  were  to  descend  according  to  the 
laws  of  England.  Not  only  murder,  manslaughter,  and 
adultery,  but  dangerous  tumults  and  seditions,  were  pun- 
ishable by  death ;  so  that  the  security  of  life  depended  on 
the  discretion  of  the  magistrate,  restricted  only  by  the  trial 
by  jury.  All  civil  causes,  requiring  corporal  punishment, 
fine,  or  imprisonment,  might  be  summarily  determined  by 
the  president  and  council ;  who  also  possessed  full  legisla- 
tive authority  in  cases  not  affecting  life  or  limb.  Kindness 
to  the  savages  was  enjoined,  with  the  use  of  all  proper 
means  for  their  conversion.  It  was  further  ordered  that 
the  industry  and  commerce  of  the  respective  colonies 
should,  for  five  years  at  least,  be  conducted  in  a  joint 
stock.  The  king  reserved  to  himself  the  right  of  future 
legislation. 

Thus  were  the  political  forms  of  the  colony  established, 
when,  on  the  nineteenth  day  of  December,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  six,  one  hundred 
and  nine  years  after  the  discovery  of  the  American  conti- 
nent by  Cabot,  forty-one  years  from  the  settlement  of 
Florida,  the  squadron  of  three  vessels,  the  largest  not  ex- 
ceeding one  hundred  tons'  burden,  with  the  favor  of  all 
England,  stretched  their  sails  for  "  the  dear  strand  of  Vir- 
ginia, earth's  only  paradise."  Michael  Drayton,  the  patriot 
poet  "of  Albion's  glorious  isle,"  cheered  them  on  their 
voyage,  saying, 

Go,  and  in  regions  far 

Such  heroes  bring  ye  forth 
As  those  from  whom  we  came ; 
And  plant  our  name 

Under  that  star 

Not  known  unto  our  north. 

Yet  the  enterprise  was  ill  concerted.  Of  the  one  hundred 
and  five,  on  the  list  of  emigrants,  there  were  but  twelve 
laborers,  and  very  few  mechanics.  They  were  going  to  a 
wilderness,  in  which,  as  yet,  not  a  house  was  standing; 
and  there  were  forty-eight  gentlemen  to  four  carpenters* 
VOL.  i.  7 


98  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

Neither  were  there  any  men  with  families.  Dissensions 
sprung  up  during  the  voyage;  as  the  names  and  instruc- 
tions of  the  council  had,  by  the  folly  of  James,  been  con- 
cealed in  a  box,  which  was  not  to  be  opened  till  after  the 
arrival  in  Virginia,  no  competent  authority  existed  to  check 
envy  and  disorder.  The  superior  capacity  of  Smith  excited 

jealousy ;  and  hope,  the  only  power  which  can  still 
1607.  the  clamors  and  allay  the  feuds  of  the  selfish,  early 

deserted  the  colonists. 

Newport,  who  commanded  the  ships,  was  acquainted  with 
the  old  passage,  and  sailed  by  way  of  the  Canaries  and  the 

West  India  Islands.  As  he  turned  to  the  north,  a 
April,  severe  storm,  in  April,  1607,  carried  his  fleet  beyond 

the  settlement  of  Raleigh,  into  the  magnificent  Bay 
of  the  Chesapeake.  The  headlands  received  and  retain  the 
names  of  Cape  Henry  and  Cape  Charles,  from  the  sons  of 
King  James ;  the  deep  water  for  anchorage,  "  putting  the 
emigrants  in  good  Comfort,"  gave  a  name  to  the  northern 
Point ;  and  within  the  capes  a  country  opened,  which  ap- 
peared to  "claim  the  prerogative  over  the  most  pleasant 
places  in  the  world."  "  Heaven  and  earth  seemed  never  to 
have  agreed  better  to  frame  a  place  for  man's  commodious 
and  delightful  habitation."  A  noble  river  was  soon  entered, 
which  was  named  from  the  monarch ;  and,  after  a  search  of 
seventeen  days,  during  which  the  comers  encountered  the 
hostility  of  one  savage  tribe,  and  at  Hampton  smoked  the 

calumet  of  peace  with  another,  on  the  thirteenth  of 
May  13.  May  the  peninsula  of  Jamestown,  about  fifty  miles 

above  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  was  selected  for  the 
site  of  the  colony. 

Thus  admirable  was  the  country.  The  emigrants  them- 
selves were  weakened  by  factious  divisions.  So  soon  as 
the  council  was  duly  constituted,  its  members  proceeded  to 
choose  Wingfield  president ;  and  then,  as  by  their  instruc- 
tions they  had  power  to  do,  they  excluded  Smith  from  their 
body,  on  a  charge  of  sedition.  But  the  attempt  at  his  trial 
was  abandoned,  and  by  "the  good  doctrine  and  exhorta- 
tion" of  Hunt,  the  man  without  whose  aid  the  vices  of  the 
colony  would  have  caused  its  immediate  ruin,  was  restored 
to  his  station. 


1607.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  99 

While  the  men  were  busy  in  felling  timber  and  providing 
freight  for  the  ships,  Newport  and  Smith  and  twenty  others 
ascended  the  James  River  to  the  falls.  They  visited  the 
native  chieftain  Powhatan,  "  the  emperor  of  the  country,"  t 
at  his  principal  seat,  just  below  the  site  of  Richmond.  The 
imperial  residence  was  a  village  of  twelve  wigwams !  The 
savages  murmured  at  the  intrusion  of  strangers  into  the 
country ;  but  Powhatan  disguised  his  fear,  and  would  only 
say :  "  They  hurt  you  not ;  they  take  but  a  little  waste  land." 

About  the  middle  of  June,  Newport  set  sail  for  England. 
What  condition  could  be  more  pitiable  than  that  of  the 
English  whom  he  had  left  in  Virginia  ?  Weak  in  numbers, 
and  still  weaker  from  want  of  habits  of  industry,  they  were 
surrounded  by  natives  whose  hostility  and  distrust  had 
already  been  displayed  ;  the  summer  heats  were  intolerable 
to  their  laborers.  Their  scanty  provisions  had  become 
spoiled  on  the  long  voyage.  "  Our  drink,"  say  they,  "  was 
unwholesome  water ;  our  lodgings,  castles  in  the  air :  had 
we  been  as  free  from  all  sins  as  from  gluttony  and  drunken- 
ness, we  might  have  been  canonized  for  saints."  Despair 
of  mind  ensued ;  in  less  than  a  fortnight  after  the  departure 
of  the  fleet,  "hardly  ten  of  them  were  able  to  stand ;"  the 
labor  of  completing  some  simple  fortifications  was  exhaust- 
ing; and  no  regular  crops  could  be  planted.  During  the 
summer,  there  were  not,  on  any  occasion,  five  able  men  to 
guard  the  bulwarks ;  the  fort  was  filled  in  every  corner 
with  the  groans  of  the  sick,  whose  outcries,  night  and  day, 
for  six  weeks,  rent  the  hearts  of  those  who  could  minister 
no  relief.  Sometimes,  three  or  four  died  in  a  night ;  in  the 
morning,  their  bodies  were  trailed  out  of  the  cabins,  like 
dogs,  to  be  buried.  Fifty  men,  one  half  of  the  colony, 
perished  before  autumn ;  among  them  Bartholomew 
Gosnold,  a  man  of  rare  merits,  worthy  of  a  perpetual  Au^72'2. 
memory  in  the  plantation,  for  he  was  its  projector, 
and  his  influence  had  alone  thus  far  preserved  some  degree 
of  harmony  in  the  council. 

Disunion  completed  the  scene  of  misery.  Wingfield,  the 
president,  accused  of  appropriating  public  stores  and  design- 
ing to  abandon  the  colony,  was  deposed.  Ratcliffe,  the  new 


100  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

president,  possessed  neither  judgment  nor  industry ;  so  that 
the  management  of  affairs  fell  into  the  hands  of  Smith, 
whose  buoyant  spirit  of  heroic  daring  diffused  light  amidst 
the  general  gloom.  In  boyhood,  such  is  his  own  narrative, 
he  had  sighed  for  the  opportunity  of  "  setting  out  on  brave 
adventures;"  and,  though  not  yet  thirty  years  of  age,  he 
was  already  a  veteran  in  service.  He  had  fought  for  tho 
independence  of  the  Batavian  republic  ;  as  a  traveller,  had 
roamed  over  France ;  had  visited  Egypt ;  had  returned  to 
Italy;  and,  panting  for  glory,  had  sought  the  borders  of 
Hungary,  where  there  had  long  existed  an  hereditary  war- 
fare with  the  followers  of  Mahomet.  There  he  distinguished 
himself  by  brave  feats  of  arms,  in  the  sight  of  Christians 
and  infidels.  At  length,  in  November,  1602,  he,  with  many 
others,  was  overpowered  in  a  sudden  skirmish  among  the 
glens  of  Wallachia;  and,  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  was  sold 
"  like  a  beast  in  a  market-place,"  and  sent  to  Constantinople 
as  a  slave.  Removed  to  the  Crimea,  and  there  subjected  to 
the  harshest  usage  among  half-savage  serfs,  he  rose  against 
his  taskmaster,  whom  he  slew  in  the  struggle;  mounted  a 
horse,  and  through  forest  paths  escaped  to  Transylvania. 
There  bidding  farewell  to  his  companions  in  arms,  he  re- 
solved to  return  "  to  his  own  sweet  country ; "  but,  on  hear- 
ing rumors  of  civil  war  in  Northern  Africa,  he  hastened,  in 
search  of  untried  dangers,  to  the  realms  of  Morocco.  At 
length  regaining  England,  his  mind  was  wholly  mastered  by 
the  general  enthusiasm  for  planting  states  in  America ; 
1607.  and  now  the  infant  commonwealth  of  Virginia  de- 
pended for  its  life  on  his  firmness.  He  was  more 
wakeful  to  gather  provisions  than  the  covetous  to  find  gold ; 
and  strove  more  to  keep  the  country  than  the  faint-hearted 
to  abandon  it.  As  autumn  approached,  the  Indians,  from 
the  superfluity  of  their  harvest,  made  a  voluntary  offering ; 
and  supplies  were  also  collected  by  expeditions  into  the 
interior.  But  the  conspiracies  that  were  still  formed  to 
desert  the  settlement,  first  by  Wingfield,  and  again  by 
Ratcliffe,  could  be  defeated  only  after  a  skirmish,  in  which 
one  of  the  leaders  was  killed ;  and  the  danger  of  a  precipi- 
tate abandonment  of  Virginia  continued  to  be  imminent, 


1608.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  101 

till  the  approach  of  winter,  when  the  homeward  navigation 
became  perilous,  and  the  fear  of  famine  was  removed  by 
the  abundance  of  wild  fowl  and  game.  Nothing  then  re- 
mained but  to  examine  the  country. 

The  South  Sea  was  considered  the  ocean  path  to  every 
kind. of  wealth.  The  coast  of  America  on  the  Pacific  had 
been  explored  by  the  Spaniards,  and  had  been  visited  by 
Drake ;  the  collections  of  Hakluyt  had  communicated  to 
the  English  the  results  of  their  voyages ;  and  the  maps  of 
that  day  exhibited  a  tolerably  accurate  delineation  of  the 
continent  of  North  America.  Yet,  with  a  strange  igno- 
rance of  the  progress  of  geographical  knowledge,  it  had  been 
enjoined  on  the  colonists  to  seek  a  communication  with  the 
South  Sea  by  ascending  some  stream  which  flowed  from 
the  north-west.  The  Chickahominy  was  such  a  stream. 
Smith,  though  he  did  not  share  the  ignorance  of  his  em- 
ployers, was  ever  willing  to  engage  in  discoveries ;  he  not 
only  ascended  the  river  as  far  as  he  could  advance  in  boats, 
but  struck  into  the  interior.  His  companions  disobeyed  his 
instructions,  and,  being  surprised  by  the  Indians,  were 
put  to  death.  Alone  with  his  Indian  guide,  and  en-  i607-8. 
vironed  in  the  woods  by  Opechancanough  and  his 
warriors,  he  gave  himself  up  as  a  prisoner ;  but  saved  his 
life  by  displaying  a  pocket  compass,  and  explaining  its 
properties  to  the  savage  chief.  His  captors  "used  him 
with  what  kindness  they  could,"  listening  to  his  discourse 
about  ships  and  the  manner  of  sailing  the  seas ;  about  the 
earth  and  the  skies,  and  about  his  God.  They  saved  him 
from  a  warrior  who  would  have  taken  vengeance  on  him 
for  the  loss  of  his  son ;  and  in  the  worst  winter  weather 
they  sent  his  letters  to  the  English  fort  on  James  River. 
From  the  villages  on  the  Chickahominy  he  was  escorted 
through  Indian  towns  to  an  audience  with  Powhatan,  who 
chanced  to  be  on  what  is  now  York  River.  The  emperor, 
studded  with  ornaments,  and  clad  in  raccoon  skins,  showed 
a  grave  and  majestical  countenance  as  he  welcomed  him 
with  good  words  and  "  great  platters  of  sundrie  "  food  ;  and 
gave  assurance  of  friendship  with  a  speedy  restoration  to 


102  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

liberty.    After  a  few  days,  which  he  diligently  used 
1608.       in   inquiries  respecting  the   country,   "he  was  sent 
home,"   accompanied  by  four  men,  two   of  whom 
were  laden  with  maize. 

The  relation  of  this  adventure  by  Smith  had  no  sooner 
reached  England  than,  in  the  author's  absence,  it  was  in- 
stantly seized  on  for  the  press.  These  first  printed  "  Newes 
from  Virginia "  made  famous  to  English  readers  the  name 
of  Pocahontas,  the  daughter  of  Powhatan,  a  girl  "  of  tenne  " 
or  "  twelve  "  "  years  old,  which  not  only  for  feature,  counte- 
nance, and  expression,  much  exceeded  any  of  the  rest  of  his 
people,  but  for  wit  and  spirit  was  the  only  nonpareil  of  the 
country."  The  captivity  of  the  bold  explorer  became  a  ben- 
efit to  the  colony ;  for  he  not  only  had  observed  with  care  the 
country  between  the  James  and  the  Potomac,  and  had  gained 
some  knowledge  of  the  language  and  manners  of  the  natives, 
but  he  established  a  peaceful  intercourse  between  the  Eng- 
lish and  the  tribes  of  Powhatan.  The  child,  to  whom  in 
later  days  he  attributed  his  rescue  from  death,  came  to  the 
fort  with  her  companions,  bringing  baskets  of  corn  for  the 
garrison. 

Restored  to  Jamestown  after  an  absence  of  but  four 
weeks,  Smith  found  the  colony  reduced  to  forty  men ;  and, 
of  these,  the  strongest  were  preparing  to  escape  with  the 
pinnace.  This  attempt  at  desertion  he  repressed  at  the 
hazard  of  his  life. 

Meantime,  the  council  in  England,  having  received  an 
increase  of  its  numbers  and  its  powers,  determined  to  send 
out  new  recruits  and  supplies;  and  Newport  had  hardly 
returned  from  his  first  voyage,  before  he  was  again  de- 
spatched with  one  hundred  and  twenty  emigrants.  Yet  the 
joy  in  Virginia  on  their  arrival  was  of  short  continuance ; 
for  the  new  comers  were  chiefly  vagabond  gentlemen  and 
goldsmiths,  who  soon  persuaded  themselves  that  they  had  dis- 
covered grains  of  gold  in  a  glittering  earth  which  abounded 
near  Jamestown ;  and  "  there  was  now  no  talk,  no  hope,  no 
work,  but  dig  gold,  wash  gold,  refine  gold,  load  gold." 
Martin,  one  of  the  council,  promised  himself  honors  in  Eng- 


1608.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  103 

land  as  the  discoverer  of  a  mine ;  and  Newport  believed 
himself  rich,  as  he  embarked  for  England  with  a  freight  of 
worthless  earth. 

Disgusted  at  the  follies  which  he  had  vainly  opposed, 
declining  for  the  moment  the  office  of  president, 
Smith  undertook  the  perilous  and  honorable  office  of  July  to 
exploring  the  Bay  of  the  Chesapeake,  and  the  rivers  ept< 
which  it  receives.  Two  voyages,  in  an  open  boat,  with  a 
few  companions,  over  whom  his  superior  courage,  rather 
than  his  station  as  a  magistrate,  gave  him  authority,  occupied 
him  about  three  months  of  the  summer,  and  embraced  a 
navigation  of  nearly  three  thousand  miles.  The  slenderness 
of  his  means  has  been  contrasted  with  the  dignity  and 
utility  of  his  discoveries,  and  his  name  has  been  placed 
among  the  ever  memorable  men  who  have  enlarged  the 
bounds  of  geographical  knowledge,  and  opened  the  way  for 
colonies  and  commerce.  He  surveyed  the  Bay  of  the 
Chesapeake  to  the  Susquehannah,  and  left  only  the  borders 
of  that  remote  river  to  remain  for  some  years  longer  the 
fabled  dwelling-place  of  a  giant  progeny.  He  was  the  first 
to  publish  to  the  English  the  power  of  the  Mohawks,  "  who 
dwelt  upon  a  great  water,  and  had  many  boats,  and  many 
men,"  and,  as  it  seemed  to  the  feebler  Algonkin  tribes, 
"  made  war  upon  all  the  world ; "  in  the  Chesapeake,  he 
encountered  a  fleet  of  their  canoes.  The  Fatapsco  was 
discovered  and  explored,  and  Smith  probably  entered  the 
harbor  of  Baltimore.  The  majestic  Potomac  especially  in- 
vited curiosity ;  and  he  ascended  beyond  Mount  Vernon  and 
Washington  to  the  falls  above  Georgetown.  Nor  did  he 
merely  examine  the  rivers  and  inlets.  He  penetrated  the 
territories,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  future  beneficial  in- 
tercourse with  the  native  tribes.  The  map  which  he  pre- 
pared and  sent  to  the  company  in  London  delineates 
correctly  the  great  outlines  of  nature.  The  expedition 
was  worthy  the  romantic  age  of  American  history. 

On  the  tenth  of  September,  1608,  three  days  after    iocs, 
his  return,  Smith  was  made  president  of  the  council. 
Order  and  industry  began  to  be  diffused  when  Newport, 
with  a  second  supply,  entered  the  river.    About  seventy 


104  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

new  emigrants  arrived ;  two  of  whom  were  females.  The 
charge  of  the  voyage  was  two  thousand  pounds ;  unless  the 
ships  should  return  full  freighted  with  commodities,  corre- 
sponding in  value  to  the  costs  of  the  adventure,  the  colonists 
were  threatened  that  "  they  should  be  left  in  Virginia  as 
banished  men."  Neither  had  experience  taught  the  com- 
pany to  engage  suitable  emigrants.  "When  you  send 
again,"  Smith  was  obliged  to  write,  "  I  entreat  you  rather 
send  but  thirty  carpenters,  husbandmen,  gardeners,  fisher- 
men, blacksmiths,  masons,  and  diggers  up  of  trees'  roots, 
well  provided,  than  a  thousand  of  such  as  we  have." 

In  1609,  after  the  departure  of  the  ships,  Smith 
6°9'  employed  his  authority  to  enforce  industry.  Six 
hours  in  the  day  were  spent  in  work;  the  rest  might  be 
given  to  pastime.  The  gentlemen  had  learned  the  use  of 
the  axe,  and  had  become  accomplished  wood-cutters.  "  He 
who  would  not  work,  might  not  eat;"  and  Jamestown 
assumed  the  appearance  of  a  regular  place  of  abode.  Yet 
so  little  land  was  under  culture  that  it  was  still  necessary 
to  gather  food  from  the  Indians.  Thus  the  season  passed 
away ;  of  two  hundred  in  the  colony,  not  more  than  seven 
died.  In  the  spring,  the  culture  of  maize  was  taught  by  two 
savages  ;  and  thirty  or  forty  acres  were  "  digged  and  planted." 
The  golden  anticipations  of  the  London  company  had 
not  been  realized ;  but  the  caiise  of  failure  appeared  in  the 
policy,  which  had  grasped  at  sudden  emoluments.  Un- 
daunted by  the  train  of  misfortunes,  the  kingdom  awoke  to 
the  greatness  of  the  undertaking,  and  designs  worthy  of  the 
English  nation  were  conceived.  The  second  charter  of  Vir- 
ginia, which,  at  the  request  of  the  former  corporation, 
Majflb.  Passe(l  the  seals  on  the  twenty-third  of  May,  1609,  in- 
trusted the  colonization  of  that  land  to  a  very  numerous 
and  opulent  and  influential  body  of  adventurers.  The  name 
of  Robert  Cecil,  Earl  of  Salisbury,  the  inveterate  enemy 
and  successful  rival  of  Raleigh,  appears  at  the  head  of  those 
who  were  to  carry  into  execution  the  grand  design  to  which 
Raleigh,  now  a  close  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  had  roused  the 
attention  of  his  countrymen.  Among  the  many  hundreds 
whose  names  followed,  were  the  Earls  of  Southampton, 


160'J.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  105 

Lincoln,  and  Dorset,  George  Percy,  Sir  Oliver  Cromwell, 
uncle  to  the  future  protector,  Sir  Anthony  Ashley,  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  Sir  Francis  Bacon,  Captain  John  Smith, 
Richard  Hakluyt,  George  Sandys,  many  tradesmen,  and 
five -and- fifty  public  companies  of  London;  so  that  the 
nobility  and  gentry,  the  army  and  the  bar,  the  industry  and 
trade  of  England,  were  represented. 

The  territory  granted  to  the  company  extended  two  hun- 
dred miles  to  the  north,  and  as  many  to  the  south  of  Old 
Point  Comfort,  "  up  into  the  land  throughout  from  sea  to 
sea,  west  and  north-west ; "  including  "  all  the  islands  lying 
within  one  hundred  miles  along  the  coast  of  both  seas  of 
the  precinct." 

At  the  request  of  the  corporation,  the  new  charter  trans- 
ferred to  the  company  the  powers  which  had  before  been 
reserved  to  the  king.  The  perpetual  supreme  council  in  Eng- 
land was  now  to  be  chosen  by  the  shareholders  themselves, 
and,  in  the  exercise  of  the  functions  of  legislation  and  gov- 
ernment, was  independent  of  the  monarch.  The  governor 
in  Virginia,  whom  the  corporation  was  to  appoint,  might 
rule  the  colonists  with  uncontrolled  authority,  according  to 
the  tenor  of  instructions  and  laws  established  by  the  council, 
or,  in  want  of  them,  according  to  his  own  good  discretion, 
even  in  cases  capital  and  criminal,  not  less  than  civil ;  and, 
in  the  event  of  mutiny  or  rebellion,  he  might  declare  mar- 
tial law,  being  himself  the  judge  of  the  necessity  of  the  meas- 
ure, and  the  executive  officer  in  its  administration.  If  not 
one  valuable  civil  privilege  was  guaranteed  to  the  emigrants, 
they  were  at  least  withdrawn  from  the  power  of  the  king ;  and 
the  company  could  at  its  pleasure  endow  them  with  all  the 
rights  of  Englishmen. 

Lord  Delaware,  distinguished  for  his  virtues  as  well  as 
rank,  received  the  appointment  of  governor  and  captain- 
general  for  life ;  and  was  surrounded,  at  least  nominally,  by 
stately  officers,  with  titles  and  charges  suited  to  the  dignity 
of  a  flourishing  empire.  The  public  mind  favored  coloniza- 
tion ;  the  adventurers,  with  cheerful  alacrity,  contributed 
free-will  offerings ;  and  such  swarms  of  people  desired  to  be 
transported  that  the  company  could  despatch  a  fleet  of  nine 
vessels,  containing  more  than  five  hundred  emigrants. 


106  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

The  admiral  of  the  expedition  was  Newport,  who,  with 
Sir  Thomas  Gates  and  Sir  George  Somers,  was  author- 
ized to  administer  the  affairs  of  the  colony  till  the  arrival  of 
Lord  Delaware.  The  three  commissioners  had  embarked  on 
board  the  same  ship,  which,  near  the  coast  of  Virginia,  a 
hurricane  separated  from  all  its  companions  and  stranded 
on  the  rocks  of  the  Bermudas.  A  small  ketch  perished ;  so 
that  seven  ships  only  arrived  in  Virginia. 

Their  coming  created  a  new  dilemma.  The  old  charter 
was  abrogated ;  and  there  was  in  the  settlement  no  one  who 
had  any  authority  from  the  new  patentees.  The  emigrants 
of  the  last  arrival  were  dissolute  gallants,  packed  off  to 
escape  worse  destinies  at  home,  broken  tradesmen,  gen- 
tlemen impoverished  in  spirit  and  fortune ;  rakes  and 
libertines,  more  fitted  to  corrupt  than  to  found  the  new 
commonwealth.  It  was  not  the  will  of  God  that  these  men 
should  "  be  the  carpenters  and  workers  in  this  so  glorious  a 
building."  Hopeless  as  the  determination  appeared,  Smith, 
for  more  than  a  year,  maintained  his  authority  as  president 
over  the  unruly  herd,  and  devised  new  expeditions  and  new 
settlements  for  their  occupation  and  support.  When  an  ac- 
cidental explosion  of  gunpowder  disabled  him  by  inflicting 
wounds  which  the  surgical  skill  of  the  colony  could  not  relieve, 
he  delegated  his  office  to  Percy,  and  embarked  for  England, 
never  to  see  Virginia  again.  He  united  the  highest  spirit  of 
adventure  with  eminent  powers  of  action.  His  courage  and 
self-possession  accomplished  what  others  esteemed  desperate. 
Fruitful  in  expedients,  he  was  prompt  in  execution.  He  was 
accustomed  to  lead,  not  to  send,  his  men  to  danger  ;  would 
suffer  want  rather  than  borrow,  and  starve  sooner  than  not 
pay.  He  had  a  just  idea  of  the  public  good  and  his  country '« 
honor.  To  his  vigor,  industry,  and  resolution,  the  survival  of 
the  colony  is  due.  He  clearly  discerned  that  it  was  the  true 
interest  of  England  not  to  seek  in  Virginia  for  gold  and 
eudden  wealth,  but  to  enforce  regular  industry.  "Noth- 
ing," said  he,  "  is  to  be  expected  thence,  but  by  labor." 

The  colonists,  no  longer  controlled  by  an  acknowledged 
authority,  abandoned  themselves  to  improvident  idleness. 
Their  ample  stock  of  provisions  was  rapidly  consumed ;  and 


1610.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  107 

further  supplies  were  refused  by  the  Indians,  who  began  to 
regard  them  with  a  fatal  contempt.  Stragglers  from  the 
town  were  cut  off ;  parties,  which  begged  food  in  the  Indian 
cabins,  were  murdered ;  and  plans  were  laid  to  starve  and 
destroy  the  whole  company.  The  horrors  of  famine  ensued ; 
while  a  band  of  about  thirty,  seizing  on  a  ship,  escaped  to 
become  pirates,  and  to  plead  desperate  necessity  as  their 
excuse.  Smith  had  left  more  than  four  hundred  and  ninety 
persons  in  the  colony :  in  six  months,  indolence,  vice,  and 
famine  reduced  the  number  to  sixty ;  and  these  were  so 
feeble  and  dejected  that,  if  relief  had  been  delayed  but  ten 
days  longer,  they  also  must  have  utterly  perished. 

Sir  Thomas  Gates  and  the  passengers,  whose  ship       ieio. 
had  been  wrecked  on  the  rocks  of  the  Bermudas,  had 
reached  the  shore  without  the  loss  of  a  life.     The  uninhab- 
ited island,  teeming  with  natural  products,  for  nine  months 
sustained  them  in  affluence.     From  the  cedars  which  they 
felled,  and  the  wrecks  of  their  old  ship,  they  constructed  two 
vessels,  in  which  they  embarked  for  Virginia,  in  the  hope  of 
a  happy  welcome  to  a  prosperous  colony.    How  great, 
then,  was  their  horror,  as  in  May,  1610,  they  came  May  24. 
among  the  scenes  of  death,  and  misery,  and  scarcity ! 
Four  pinnaces  remained  in  the  river ;  nor  could  the  extrem- 
ity of  distress  listen  to  any  other  course  than  to  make 
sail  for  Newfoundland.    The  colonists  desired  to  burn   June  T. 
the  town  in  which  they  had  been  so  wretched,  and 
the  exercise  of  their  infantile  vengeance  was  prevented  only 
by  Gates,  who  was  himself  the  last  to  desert  the  settlement. 
"  None  dropped  a  tear,  for  none  had  enjoyed  one 
day  of  happiness."     On  the  eighth  they  fell  down  the   June  8. 
stream  with  the  tide ;  but,  the  next  morning,  as  they 
drew  near  the  mouth   of  the  river,  they  encountered  the 
long-boat  of  Lord  Delaware,  who  had  arrived  on  the  coast 
with  emigrants  and  supplies.     The  fugitives  bore   up  the 
helm,  and,  favored  by  the  wind,  were  that  night  once  more 
at  the  fort  in  Jamestown. 

It  was  on  the  tenth  day  of  June  that  the  restoration  of  the 
colony  was  begun.  "  Bucke,  chaplain  of  the  Somer  Islands, 
finding  all  things  so  contrary  to  their  expectations,  so  full  of 


108  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  IV. 

misery  and  misgovernment,  made  a  zealous  and  sorrowful 
prayer."  A  deep  sense  of  the  infinite  mercies  of  Providence 
revived  hope  in  the  colonists  who  had  been  spared  by  famine, 
the  emigrants  who  had  been  shipwrecked  and  yet  preserved, 
and  the  newcomers  who  found  wretchedness  and  want 
where  they  had  expected  abundance.  "It  is,"  said  they, 
"  the  arm  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  who  would  have  his  people 
pass  the  Red  Sea  and  the  wilderness,  and  then  possess  the 
land  of  Canaan."  "  Doubt  not,"  said  the  emigrants  to  the 
people  of  England,  "  God  will  raise  our  state  and  build  his 
church  in  this  excellent  clime."  Lord  Delaware  caused  his 
commission  to  be  read ;  and,  after  a  consultation  on  the  good 
of  the  colony,  its  government  was  organized  with  mildness 
but  decision.  The  evils  of  faction  were  healed  by  the  unity 
of  the  administration,  and  the  dignity  and  virtues  of  the 
governor ;  and  the  colonists,  in  mutual  emulation,  performed 
their  tasks  with  alacrity.  At  the  beginning  of  the  day, 
they  assembled  in  the  little  church,  which  was  kept  neatly 
trimmed  with  the  wild  flowers  of  the  country ;  next,  they 
returned  to  their  houses  to  receive  their  allowance  of  food. 
The  hours  of  labor  were  from  six  in  the  morning  till  ten, 
and  from  two  in  the  afternoon  till  four.  The  houses  were 
warm  and  secure,  covered  above  with  strong  boards,  and 
matted  on  the  inside  after  the  fashion  of  the  Indian  wig- 
wams. 

The  country  became  better  known.  Samuel  Argall,  who 
in  the  former  year  had  visited  Virginia  as  a  trading  agent 
of  Sir  Thomas  Smythe,  and  now  came  over  again  with  the 
expedition  of  1610,  explored  the  neighboring  coast  to  the 
north.  At  nine  in  the  morning  of  the  twenty-seventh  of 
July,  he  cast  anchor  in  a  very  great  bay,  with  many  afflu- 
ents ;  and  gave  it  the  name  of  Delaware. 

Security  and  affluence  were  returning  to  the  colony.  But 
the  health  of  Lord  Delaware  sunk  under  his  cares  and  the 
climate ;  after  a  lingering  sickness,  he  left  the  adminis- 
tration with  Percy,  and  returned  to  England.  The  colony, 
at  this  time,  consisted  of  about  two  hundred  men ;  but  the 
departure  of  the  governor  produced  despondency  at  James- 
town ;  "  a  damp  of  coldness "  in  the  hearts  of  the  London 


1611.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  109 

company ;  and  a  great  reaction  in  the  popular  mind  in  Eng- 
land. In  the  age  when  the  theatre  was  the  chief  place  of 
public  resort  for  amusement,  Virginia  was  introduced  by 
the  stage-poets  as  a  theme  of  derision.  "  This  plantation," 
complained  they  of  Jamestown,  "  has  undergone  the  reproofs 
of  the  base  world ;  our  own  brethren  laugh  us  to  scorne ;  and 
papists  and  players,  the  scum  and  dregs  of  the  earth,  mocke 
such  as  help  to  build  up  the  walls  of  Jerusalem." 

Fortunately,  the  adventurers,  before  the  311  success 
of  Lord  Delaware  was  known,  had  despatched  Sir  icii. 
Thomas  Dale,  "  an  experienced  soldier,"  with  supplies. 
In  May,  1611,  he  arrived  in  the  Chesapeake,  and  Mayio. 
assumed  the  government,  which  he  soon  afterwards 
administered  upon  the  basis  of  martial  law.  The  code, 
printed  and  sent  to  Virginia  by  the  treasurer,  Sir  Thomas 
Smythe,  on  his  own  authority,  and  without  the  order  or 
assent  of  the  company,  was  chiefly  a  translation  from  the 
rules  of  war  of  the  United  Provinces.  The  Episcopal 
Church,  coeval  in  Virginia  with  the  settlement  of  James- 
town, was,  like  the  infant  commonwealth,  subjected  to 
military  power;  and,  though  conformity  was  not  strictly 
enforced,  yet  courts-martial  had  authority  to  punish  indiffer- 
ence with  stripes,  and  infidelity  with  death.  The  normal 
introduction  of  this  arbitrary  system,  which  the  charter  per- 
mitted only  in  cases  of  rebellion  and  mutiny,  added  new 
sorrows  to  the  wretchedness  of  the  people,  who  pined  and 
perished  under  despotic  rule. 

The  letters  of  Dale  to  the  council  confessed  the  small 
number  and  weakness  and  discontent  of  the  colonists ;  but 
he  kindled  hope  in  the  hearts  of  those  constant  adventurers, 
who,  in  the  greatest  disasters,  had  never  fainted.  "  If  any 
thing  otherwise  than  well  betide  me,"  said  he,  "  let  me  com- 
mend unto  your  carefulness  the  pursuit  and  dignity  of  this 
business,  than  which  your  purses  and  endeavors  will  never 
open  nor  travel  in  a  more  meritorious  enterprise.  Take 
four  of  the  best  kingdoms  in  Christendom,  and  put  them  all 
together,  they  may  no  way  compare  with  this  country,  either 
for  commodities  or  goodness  of  soil."  Lord  Delaware  and 
Sir  Thomas  Gates  confirmed  what  Dale  had  written,  and, 


110  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

without  any  delay,  Gates,  who  has  the  honor,  to  all  posterity, 
of  being  the  first  named  in  the  original  patent  for  Virginia, 
conducted  to  the  New  World  six  ships,  with  three  hundred 
emigrants.  Long  afterwards  the  gratitude  of  Virginia  to 
these  early  emigrants  was  shown  by  repeated  acts  of  be- 
nevolent legislation.  A  wise  liberality  sent  also  a  hundred 
kine,  as  well  as  suitable  provisions.  It  was  the  most  fortu- 
nate step  which  had  been  taken,  and  proved  the  wisdom  of 
Cecil,  and  others,  whose  firmness  had  prevailed. 

The  promptness  of  this  relief  merits  admiration.    In  May, 

Dale  had  written  from  Virginia;  and  the  last  of 
ion.  August  the  new  recruits,  under  Gates,  were  already 

at  Jamestown.  So  unlocked  for  was  this  supply, 
that,  at  their  approach,  they  were  regarded  with  fear  as  a 
hostile  fleet.  Who  can  describe  the  joy  at  finding  them 
to  be  friends  ?  Gates  assumed  the  government  amidst  the 
thanksgivings  of  the  colony,  and  at  once  endeavored  to 
employ  the  sentiment  of  religious  gratitude  as  a  foundation 
of  order  and  of  laws.  "Lord  bless  England,  our  sweet 
native  country,"  was  the  morning  and  evening  prayer  of 
the  grateful  emigrants.  The  colony  now  numbered  seven 
hundred  men.  Dale,  with  the  consent  of  Gates,  went 
far  up  the  river  to  found  the  new  plantation,  which,  in 
honor  of  Prince  Henry,  a  general  favorite  with  the  English 
people,  was  named  Henrico ;  and  there,  on  the  remote 
frontier,  Alexander  Whitaker,  the  self-denying  "  apostle  of 
Virginia,"  assisted  in  "  bearing  the  name  of  God  to  the 
gentiles."  But  the  greatest  change  in  the  condition  of  the 
colonists  resulted  from  the  incipient  establishment  of  private 
property.  To  each  man  a  iew  acres  of  ground  were  as- 
signed for  his  orchard  and  garden,  to  plant  at  his  pleasure 
and  for  his  own  use.  So  long  as  industry  had  been  without 
its  special  reward,  reluctant  labor,  wasteful  of  time,  had 
been  followed  by  want.  Henceforward,  the  sanctity  of 
private  property  was  recognised.  Yet  the  rights  of  the 
Indians  were  little  respected ;  nor  did  the  English  disdain 
to  appropriate  by  conquest  the  soil,  the  cabins,  and  the 
granaries  of  the  tribe  of  the  Appomattocks.  It  was,  more- 
over, the  policy  of  the  government  so  "  to  overmaster  the 


1612.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  Ill 

subtile  Powhatan  "  that  he  would  perforce  join  with  the  col- 
ony in  submissive  friendship,  or,  finding  "  no  room  in  his 
country  to  harbor  in,"  would  "  leave  it  to  their  possession." 

When  the  court  of  Spain  learned  that  the  English  were 
appropriating  the  country  on  the  Chesapeake,  it  made  re- 
peated threats  of  sending  armed  galleons  into  Virginia  to 
remove  the  planters.  In  the  summer  of  1611,  a  Spanish 
caravel  with  a  shallop  anchored  near  Point  Comfort,  and, 
obtaining  a  pilot  from  the  fort,  took  soundings  of  the  chan- 
nels. Yet  no  use  was  made  of  the  knowledge  thus  acquired ; 
for  the  colony  was  reported  to  be  in  such  extremities  that 
it  could  not  but  fall  of  itself. 

While  the  colony  was  advancing  in  strength  and  hap- 
piness, the  third  patent  for  Virginia,  signed  in  March, 
1612,  granted  to  the  adventurers  in  England  the  Ber-  ^1^12. 
mudas  and  all  islands  within  three  hundred  leagues 
of  the  Virginia  shore ;  a  concession  of  no  ultimate  im- 
portance in  American  history,  since  the  new  acquisitions 
were  soon  transferred  to  a  separate  company.  But  now  it 
further  ordered  that  weekly  or  even  more  frequent  meet- 
ings of  the  whole  company  might  be  convened  for  the  trans- 
action of  ordinary  business ;  while  all  questions  respecting 
government,  commerce,  and  the  disposition  of  lands,  should 
be  reserved  for  the  four  great  and  general  courts,  at  which 
all  officers  were  to  be  elected  and  all  laws  established.  The 
political  rights  of  the  colonists  were  not  directly  acknowl- 
edged ;  but  the  character  of  the  corporation  was  entirely 
changed  by  transferring  power  from  the  council  to  the  com- 
pany, through  whose  assemblies  the  people  of  Virginia 
might  gain  leave  to  exercise  every  political  power  belonging 
to  the  people  of  England.  A  perverse  financial  privilege 
was,  at  the  same  tune,  conceded ;  and  lotteries,  though  un- 
usual in  England,  were  authorized  for  the  benefit  of  the 
colony.  The  lotteries  produced  to  the  company  twenty- 
nine  thousand  pounds ;  disliked  by  the  nation  as  a  griev- 
ance, in  1621,  on  the  complaint  of  the  house  of  commons, 
they  were  suspended  by  an  order  of  council. 

There  was  no  longer  any  doubt  of  the  stability  of  the 
colony.     They  who  had  freely  offered  gifts,  while  "  the  holy 


112  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

action"  of  planting  it  was  "languishing  and  forsaken," 
saw  the  "  pious  and  heroic  enterprise  "  assured  of  success. 
Shakespeare,  whose  friend,  the  "popular"  Earl  of  South- 
ampton, was  the  foremost  man  in  the  Virginia  company, 
shared  the  pride  and  the  hope  of  his  countrymen.  As  he 
heard  of  James  River  and  Jamestown,  his  splendid  proph- 
ecy, by  the  mouth  of  the  Protestant  Cranmer,  promised  the 
English  nation  the  possession  of  a  hemisphere,  through  the 
patron  of  colonies,  King  James  :  — 

Wherever  the  bright  sun  of  heaven  shall  shine, 
His  honor  and  the  greatness  of  his  name 
Shall  be,  and  make  new  nations ;  he  shall  flourish, 
And,  like  a  mountain  cedar,  reach  his  branches 
To  all  the  plains  about  him. 

From  Virginia  came  the  first  attempt  to  restrain  the  col- 
onization of  the  French  in  North  America.  In  the  early 
spring  which  followed  the  grant  of  a  third  charter  to  the 
London  company,  Argall  first  made  trading  voyages  up  the 
Potomac,  while  he  persuaded  an  Indian  chief  to  betray 
Pocahontas  into  his  hands,  to  be  kept  at  Jamestown  as  a 
ransom  for  the  return  of  Englishmen  held  in  captiv- 
1612.  ity  by  her  father.  In  May,  he  still  further  explored 
the  eastern  shore  of  the  Chesapeake ;  not  without 
hope  of  finding  some  short  cut  for  boats  and  barges  from  the 
head  of  the  bay  to  the  Delaware.  Then  in  his  vessel,  which 
carried  fifteen  guns  and  a  crew  of  sixty  men,  he  set  forth  on  a 
fishing  voyage  to  the  Isle  of  Shoals.  In  the  waters  of  New 
England,  he  heard  of  the  establishment  of  the  French  on 
Mount  Desert  Isle.  The  colony  had  been  planted  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Madame  de  Guercheville,  who  had  not  only  pur- 
chased the  rights  of  De  Monts,  but  had  obtained  a  royal 
grant  to  colonize  any  part  of  America  from  the  great  river  of 
Canada  to  Florida,  excepting  only  Port  Royal.  Her  earliest 
colony,  consisting  of  three  Jesuits  and  thirty  men,  had  planted 
themselves  on  an  inviting  hillside  that  sloped  gently  toward 
the  sea;  and  were  sheltered  in  four  pavilions,  which  had 
been  the  gift  of  the  queen  dowager  of  France,  Mary  of 
Medici.  Of  a  sudden  they  beheld  a  ship  tricked  out  in 
red,  bearing  the  flag  of  England,  with  three  trumpets  and 


161'J.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA. 

two  drums  sounding  violently,  sailing  under  favoring  winds 
into  their  harbor  swifter  than  an  arrow.  It  was  Argall,  with 
a  force  too  great  to  be  resisted.  After  cannonading  the 
slight  intrenchments,  and  a  sharp  discharge  of  musketry, 
he  gained  possession  of  the  infant  hamlet  of  St.  Saviour. 
The  cross  round  which  the  faithful  had  gathered  was  thrown 
down ;  the  tents  were  abandoned  to  pillage ;  and  the  ship 
in  the  harbor  seized  as  a  prize,  because  captured  between 
the  forty-third  and  forty-fourth  parallels  of  latitude,  within 
the  limits  of  Virginia.  The  French  were  expelled  from  the 
territory,  but  with  no  further  act  of  inhumanity  or  cruelty ; 
a  part  of  them  found  their  way  to  a  vessel  bound  for  St. 
Malo,  others  were  taken  to  the  Chesapeake. 

On  making  his  report  at  Jamestown,  Argall  was  sent  once 
more  to  the  north,  with  authority  to  remove  every  land- 
mark of  France  in  the  territory  south  of  the  forty-sixth 
degree.  He  raised  the  arms  of  England  on  the  spot  where 
those  of  France  and  De  Guercheville  had  been  thrown  down ; 
razed  the  fortifications  of  De  Monts  on  the  Isle  of  St.  Croix ; 
and  set  on  fire  the  deserted  settlement  of  Port  Royal.  In 
this  manner,  England  vindicated  her  claim  to  Maine  and 
Acadia.  In  less  than  a  century  and  a  half,  the  strife  for  acres 
which  neither  nation  could  cultivate  kindled  war  round  the 
globe.  For  the  moment  France,  distracted  by  the  factions 
which  folloAved  the  assassination  of  Henry  IV.,  did  not  re- 
sent the  insult  to  her  flag ;  and  the  complaint  of  Madame  de 
Guercheville  was  presented  only  as  a  private  claim. 

Meantime  the  captivity  of  the  daughter  of  Pow-  leis. 
hatan  led  to  better  relations  between  Virginia  and 
the  Indian  tribes.  For  the  sake  of  her  liberation,  the  chief 
set  free  his  English  captives.  During  the  period  of  her  stay 
at  Jamestown,  John  Rolfe,  "  an  honest  and  discreet "  young 
Englishman,  daily,  hourly,  and,  as  it  were,  in  his  very  sleep, 
heard  a  voice  crying  in  his  ears  that  he  should  strive  to  make 
her  a  Christian.  After  a  great  struggle  of  mind,  and  daily 
and  believing  prayers,  he  resolved  to  labor  for  the  conver- 
sion of  the  "  unregenerated  maiden ; "  and,  winning  the  favor 
of  Pocahontas,  he  desired  her  in  marriage.  The  youthful' 
princess  received  instruction  with  docility;  and  soon,  in 


114  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

the  little  church  of  Jamestown,  which  rested  on  rough  pine 
columns,  fresh  from  the  forest,  she  stood  before  the  font,  that 
out  of  the  trunk  of  a  tree  "  had  been  hewn  hollow  like  a 
canoe,"  "  openly  renounced  her  country's  idolatry,  professed 
the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  was  baptized."  "  The  gaining 
of  this  one  soul,"  "  the  first  fruits  of  Virginian  conversion," 
was  followed  by  her  nuptials  with  Rolfe.  In  April,  1014, 
to  the  joy  of  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  with  the  approbation  of  her 
father  and  friends,  Opachisco,  her  uncle,  gave  the  bride  away  ; 
and  she  stammered  before  the  altar  her  marriage  vows. 

Every  historian  of  Virginia  commemorates  the  union  with 
approbation  ;  distinguished  men  trace  from  it  their  descent. 
Its  immediate  fruits  to  the  colony  were  a  confirmed  peace, 
not  with  Powhatan  alone,  but  also  with  the  powerful  Chicka- 
hominies,  who  sought  the  friendship  of  the  English,  and 
demanded  to  be  called  Englishmen.  But  the  European  and 
the  native  races  could  not  blend,  and  the  weakest  were 
doomed  to  disappear. 

1614  Sir  Thomas  Gates,  who,  in  March,  1614,  had  left 

March,    the  government  with  Dale,  on  his  return  to  England 

employed  himself  in  reviving  the  courage  of  the  Lon- 
Mayn.  don  company.  In  May,  1G14,  a  petition  for  aid  was 

presented  to  the  house  of  commons,  and  was  heard 
with  unusual  solemnity.  It  was  supported  by  Lord  Dela- 
ware, whose  affection  for  Virginia  ceased  only  with  life. 
He  would  have  had  the  enterprise  adopted  by  the  house  and 
king,  even  at  the  risk  of  a  conflict  with  the  Spaniards.  "  All 
it  requires,"  said  he,  "  is  but  a  few  honest  laborers,  burdened 
with  children."  He  moved  for  a  committee  to  consider  of 
relief,  but  nothing  was  agreed  upon.  The  king  was  eager 
to  press  upon  the  house  the  relief  of  his  wants,  and  the 
commons  to  consider  the  grievances  of  the  people;  and 
these  disputes  with  the  monarch  led  to  a  hasty  dissolution 
of  the  commons.  It  was  not  to  privileged  companies, 
parliaments,  or  kings,  that  the  new  state  was  to  owe  its 
prosperity.  Agriculture  enriched  Virginia. 

The  condition  of  private  property  in  lands,  among 

tne  colonists,  depended,  in  some  measure,  on  the  cir-. 

cumstances  under  which  they  had  emigrated.  To  those 


1617.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  115 

who  had  been  sent  and  maintained  at  the  exclusive  cost  of 
the  company,  and  were  its  servants,  one  month  of  their  time 
and  three  acres  of  land  were  set  apart  for  them,  besides  an 
allowance  of  two  bushels  of  corn  from  the  public  store ;  the 
rest  of  their  labor  belonged  to  their  employers.  This  num- 
ber gradually  decreased ;  and,  in  1617,  there  were  of  them 
all,  men,  women,  and  children,  but  fifty-four.  Others,  espe- 
cially the  favorite  settlement  near  the  mouth  of  the  Appo- 
mattox,  were  tenants,  paying  two  and  a  half  barrels  of  corn 
as  a  yearly  tribute  to  the  store,  and  giving  to  the  public  ser- 
vice one  month's  labor,  which  was  to  be  required  neither  at 
seed-time  nor  harvest.  He  who  came  himself,  or  had  sent 
others  at  his  own  expense,  had  been  entitled  to  a  hundred 
acres  of  land  for  each  person  ;  now  that  the  colony  was  well 
established,  the  bounty  on  emigration  was  fixed  at  fifty  acres, 
of  which  the  actual  occupation  and  culture  gave  a  right  to  as 
many  more,  to  be  assigned  at  leisure.  Besides  this,  lands 
were  granted  as  rewards  of  merit ;  yet  not  more  than  two 
thousand  acres  could  be  so  appropriated  to  one  person.  A 
payment  to  the  company's  treasury  of  twelve  pounds  and 
ten  shillings  likewise  obtained  a  title  to  any  hundred  acres 
of  land  not  yet  granted  or  possessed,  with  a  reserved  claim 
to  as  much  more.  Such  were  the  earliest  land  laws  of  Vir- 
ginia :  though  imperfect  and  unequal,  they  gave  the  culti- 
vator the  means  of  becoming  a  proprietor  of  the  soil.  These 
changes  were  established  by  Sir  Thomas  Dale,  a  magistrate 
who,  notwithstanding  the  introduction  of  martial  law,  has 
gained  praise  for  his  vigor  and  industry,  his  judgment  and 
conduct.  Having  remained  five  years  in  America,  he  ap- 
pointed George  Yeardley  deputy  governor  ;  and  with  Poca- 
hontas  and  her  husband  as  the  companions  of  his  voy- 
age, in  June,  1616,  he  arrived  in  his  native  country.  leie. 

The  Virginia  princess,  instructed  in  the  English 
language,  and  bearing  an  English  name,  "  the  first  Christian 
ever  of  her  nation,"  was  wondered  at  in  the  city ;  entertained 
with  unwonted  festival  state  and  pomp  by  the  bishop  of  Lon- 
don, in  his  hopeful  zeal  by  her  to  advance  Christianity ;  and 
graciously  received  at  court,  where,  on  one  of  the 
holidays  of  the  following  Christmas  season,  she  was       iei7. 


116  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

an  honored  guest  at  the  presentment  of  a  burlesque  masque, 
which  Ben  Jouson  had  written  to  draw  a  hearty  laugh  from 
King  James.  A  few  weeks  later,  she  prepared  to  return  to 
the  land  of  her  fathers ;  but  died  at  Gravesend  as  she  was 
bound  for  home. 

With  the  success  of  agriculture,  the  Virginians, 
'iciT*0  f°r  tf16  security  of  property,  needed  the  possession 
of  political  rights.  From  the  first  settlement  of  Vir- 
ginia, Sir  Thomas  Smythe  had  been  the  presiding  officer  of 
the  London  company ;  and  no  willingness  had  been  shown 
to  share  the  powers  of  government  with  the  emigrants,  who 
had  thus  far  been  ruled  as  soldiers  in  a  garrison.  JsTow  that 
they  had  outgrown  this  condition  of  dependency,  and  were 
possessed  of  the  elements  of  political  life,  they  found  among 
the  members  of  the  London  company  wise  and  powerful  and 
disinterested  friends.  Yet  in  the  appointment  of  a  deputy 
governor  the  faction  of  Smythe  still  prevailed  ;  and  Argall, 
who  had  been  his  mercantile  agent,  was  elected  by  ballot  to 
supersede  Yeardley  as  deputy  governor  of  the  colony.  He 
was  further  invested  with  the  place  of  admiral  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  adjoining  seas  ;  an  evidence  that  his  overthrow 
of  the  French  settlements  in  the  north  was  approved. 

In  May,  1617,  Argall  arrived  in  Virginia,  and  assumed  its 
government.  Placed  above  immediate  control,  he  showed 
himself  from  the  first  arrogant,  self-willed,  and  greedy  of 
gain.  Martial  law  was  still  the  common  law  of  the  country, 
and  his  arbitrary  rule  "  imported  more  hazard  to  the  planta- 
tion than  ever  did  any  other  thing  that  befell  that  action 
from  the  beginning."  He  disposed  of  the  kine  and  bullocks 
belonging  to  the  colony  for  his  own  benefit ;  he  took  to 
himself  a  monopoly  of  the  fur-trade ;  he  seized  ancient  col- 
ony men,  who  were  free,  and  laborers  who  were  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  company,  and  forced  them  to  work  for  himself. 

Before  an  account  of  his  malfeasance  in  office  reached 
England,  Lord  Delaware,  the  governor-general,  had  been 
despatched  by  the  company  with  two  hundred  men  and  sup- 
plies for  the  colony.  He  was  followed  by  orders  to  ship  the 
deputy  governor  home,  where  he  was  "  to  answer  every  thing 
that  should  be  laid  to  his  charge." 


1619.  COLONIZATION  OF   VIRGINIA.  11 7 

The  presence  of  Lord  Delaware  might  have  restored  tran- 
quillity ;  his  health  was  not  equal  to  the-  voyage,  and  he 
did  not  live  to  reach  Virginia.  Argall  was  therefore  left 
unrestrained  to  defraud  the  company,  as  well  as  to 
oppress  the  colonists.  The  condition  of  Virginia  be-  leis. 
came  intolerable ;  the  labor  of  the  settlers  continued 
to  be  perverted  to  the  benefit  of  the  governor ;  servitude, 
for  a  limited  period,  was  the  common  penalty  annexed  to 
trifling  offences ;  and,  in  a  colony  where  martial  law  still 
continued  in  force,  life  was  insecure  against  his  capricious 
passions.  The  first  appeal  ever  made  from  America  to 
England,  directed  not  to  the  king,  but  to  the  company,  was 
in  behalf  of  one  whom  Argall  had  wantonly  condemned  to 
death,  and  whom  he  had  with  great  difficulty  been  prevailed 
upon  to  spare.  The  colony  was  fast  falling  into  disrepute, 
and  the  report  of  the  tyranny  established  beyond  the  Atlan- 
tic checked  emigration ;  but  it  also  happily  roused  the  dis- 
content of  the  best  of  the  adventurers.  When  on  the  fifth 
of  October,  1618,  the  news  of  the  death  of  Lord  Delaware 
reached  London,  they  demanded  a  reformation  with  guaran- 
tees for  the  future.  After  a  strenuous  contest  on  the  part 
of  rival  factions  for  the  control  of  the  company,  the  influ- 
ence of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and  his  friends  prevailed ;  Argall 
was  displaced,  and  the  mild  and  popular  Yeardley  was 
elected  governor  in  his  stead,  with  higher  rank.  On  NOV.  22. 
the  twenty-second  of  November  the  king  gave  him 
audience,  knighted  him,  and  held  a  long  discourse  with 
him  on  the  religion  of  the  natives.  Vessels  lay  in  the 
Thames  ready  for  Virginia ;  but  before  the  new  chief  mag- 
istrate could  reach  his  post,  Argall  had  withdrawn,  having 
previously,  by  fraudulent  devices,  preserved  for  himself  and 
his  partners  the  fruits  of  his  extortions. 

On   the   nineteenth   of    April,   1619,   Sir   George      1619 
Yeardley  entered   on  his  office   in  the  colony.     Of     April, 
the  emigrants  who  had  been  sent  over  at  great  cost, 
not  one  in  twenty  then  remained  alive.     "  In  James  citty 
were  only  those  houses  that  Sir  Thomas  Gates  built  in  the 
tyme  of  his  government,  with  one  wherein  the  governor 
allwayes  dwelt,  and  a  church,  built  wholly  at  the  charge  of 


118  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  IV. 

the  inhabitants  of  that  citye,  of  timber,  being  fifty  foote  in 
length  and  twenty  in  breadth."  At  Henrico,  now  Rich- 
mond, there  were  no  more  than  "  three  old  houses,  a  poor 
ruinated  church,  with  some  few  poore  buildings  in  the 
islande."  "  For  ministers  to  instruct  the  people,  only  three 
were  authorized ;  two  others  had  never  received  ^their 
orders."  "  The  natives  were  upon  doubtfull  termes;"  and 
the  colony  was  altogether  "  in  a  poore  estate." 

From  the  moment  of  Yeardley's  arrival  dates  the  real  life 
of  Virginia.  Bringing  with  him  "  commissions  and  instruc- 
tions from  the  company  for  the  better  establishinge  of  a 
commomvealth,"  he  made  proclamation  "  that  those  cruell 
lawes,  by  which  the  ancient  planters  had  soe  longe  been 
governed,  were  now  abrogated,  and  that  they  were  to  be 
governed  by  those  free  lawes,  which  his  majesties  subjectes 
lived  under  in  Englande."  Nor  were  these  concessions 
left  dependent  on  the  good-will  of  administrative  officers. 
"  That  the  planters  might  have  a  hande  in  the  governing 
of  themselves,  yt  was  graunted  that  a  generall  assemblie 
shoulde  be  helde  yearly  once,  whereat  were  to  be  present 
the  governor  and  counsell  with  two  burgesses  from  each 
plantation,  freely  to  be  elected  by  the  inhabitantes  thereof, 
this  assemblie  to  have  power  to  make  and  ordaine  whatso- 
ever lawes  and  orders  should  by  them  be  thought  good  and 
profitable  for  their  subsistence." 

In  conformity  with  these  instructions,  Sir  George  Yeard- 
ley  "sente  his  summons  all  over  the  country,  as  well  to 
invite  those  of  the  counsell  of  estate  that  were  absente,  as 
also  for  the  election  of  burgesses." 

Nor  did  the  patriot  members  of  the  London  company 
leave  him  without  support.  At  the  great  and  general  court 
of  the  Easter  term,  Sir  Thomas  Srnythe,  having  reluctantly 
professed  a  wish  to  be  eased  of  his  office,  was  dismissed ; 
and  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  elected  by  a  great  majority  governor 
and  treasurer.  For  deputy,  John  Ferrar  was  elected  by  a 
like  majority ;  and  Nicholas  Ferrar,  the  younger  brother  of 
the  deputy,  just  turned  of  six -and -twenty,  one  of  the  purest 
and  least  selfish  men  that  ever  lived,  who  a  few  months 
before  had  returned  from  an  extensive  tour  on  the  continent 


1019.  COLONIZATION   OF   VIRGINIA.  119 

of  Europe,  was  made  counsel  to  the  corporation.  The  con- 
duct of  business  gradually  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  latter, 
who  proved  himself  able  and  indefatigable  in  business, 
devoted  to  his  country  and  its  church,  at  once  a  royalist,  and 
a  wise  and  firm  upholder  of  English  liberties.  In  the  early 
history  of  American  colonization  the  English  character  no- 
Avliere  showed  itself  to  better  advantage  than  in  the  Virginia 
company  after  the  change  in  its  direction. 

It  was  therefore  without  any  danger  of  being  thwarted  at 
home  that  on  Friday,  the  thirtieth  day  of  July,  1619,  dele- 
gates from  each  of  the  eleven  plantations  of  Virginia  assem- 
bled at  James  City. 

The  inauguration  of  legislative  power  in  the  Ancient 
Dominion  preceded  the  introduction  of  negro  slavery.  The 
governor  and  council  sat  with  the  burgesses,  and  took  part 
in  motions  and  debates.  John  Pory,  a  councillor  and  sec- 
retary of  the  colony,  though  not  a  burgess,  was  chosen, 
speaker.  Legislation  was  opened  with  prayer.  The  assem- 
bly exercised  fully  the  right  of  judging  of  the  proper  elec- 
tion of  its  members  ;  and  they  would  not  suffer  any  patent, 
conceding  manorial  jurisdiction,  to  bar  the  obligation  of 
obedience  to  their  decisions.  They  wished  every  grant  of 
land  to  be  made  with  equal  favor,  that  all  complaint  of  par- 
tiality might  be  avoided,  and  the  uniformity  of  laws  and 
orders  never  be  impeached.  The  commission  of  privileges 
sent  by  Sir  George  Yeardley  was  their  "  great  charter,"  or 
organic  act,  which  they  claimed  no  right  "to  correct  or 
control ; "  yet  they  kept  the  way  open  for  seeking  redress, 
"  in  case  they  should  find  ought  not  perfectly  squaring  with 
the  state  of  the  colony." 

Leave  to  propose  laws  was  given  to  any  burgess,  or  by 
way  of  petition  to  any  member  of  the  colony ;  but,  for  ex- 
pedition's sake,  the  main  business  of  the  session  was  dis- 
tributed between  two  committees;  while  a  third  body, 
composed  of  the  governor  and  such  burgesses  as  were  not 
on  those  committees,  examined  which  of  former  instruc- 
tions "  might  conveniently  put  on  the  habit  of  laws."  The 
legislature  acted  also  as  a  criminal  court. 

The  church  of  England  was  confirmed  as  the  church  of 


120  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

Virginia;  it  was  intended  that  the  first  four  ministers 
should  each  receive  two  hundred  pounds  a  year ;  all  persons 
whatsoever,  upon  the  Sabbath  days,  Avere  to  frequent  divine 
service  and  sermons  both  forenoon  and  afternoon ;  and  all 
such  as  bore  arms,  to  bring  their  pieces  or  swords.  Grants 
of  land  were  asked  not  for  planters  only,  but  for  their  wives, 
"  because,  in  a  new  plantation,  it  is  not  known  whether  man 
or  woman  be  the  most  necessary."  Measures  were  adopted 
"towards  the  erecting  of  a  university  and  college."  It 
was  also  enacted  that,  of  the  children  of  the  Indians,  "the 
most  towardly  boys  in  wit  and  graces  of  nature  should  be 
brought  up  in  the  first  elements  of  literature,  and  sent  from 
the  college  to  the  work  of  conversion  "  of  the  natives  to  the 
Christian  religion.  Penalties  were  appointed  for  idleness, 
gaming  with  dice  or  cards,  and  drunkenness.  Excess  in 
apparel  was  taxed  in  the  church  for  all  public  contributions. 
The  business  of  planting  corn,  mulberry-trees,  hemp,  and 
vines  was  encouraged.  The  price  of  tobacco  was  fixed  at 
three  shillings  a  pound  for  the  best,  and  half  as  much  "  for 
the  second  sort." 

When  the  question  was  taken  on  accepting  "  the  great 
charter,"  "it  had  the  general  assent  and  the  applause  of 
the  whole  assembly,"  with  thanks  for  it  to  Almighty 
God  and  to  those  from  whom  it  had  issued,  in  the  names 
of  the  burgesses  and  of  the  whole  colony  whom  they  rep- 
resented :  the  more  so,  as  they  were  promised  the  power  to 
allow  or  disallow  the  orders  of  court  of  the  London  company. 

A  perpetual  interest  attaches  to  this  first  elective  body 
that  ever  assembled  in  the  western  world,  representing  the 
people  of  Virginia,  and  making  laws  for  their  government, 
more  than  a  year  before  the  "  Mayflower,"  with  the  pil- 
grims, left  the  harbor  of  Southampton,  and  while  Virginia 
was  still  the  only  British  colony  on  the  continent  of  Amer- 
ica. The  functions  of  government  were  in  some  degree 
confounded ;  but  the  record  of  the  proceedings  justifies  the 
opinion  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  that  "  the  laws  were  very 
well  and  judiciously  formed." 

The  enactments  of  these  earliest  American  lawgivers  were 
instantly  put  in  force,  without  waiting  for  their  ratification 


1620.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  121 

by  the  company  in  England.  Former  griefs  were  buried  in 
oblivion,  and  they  who  had  been  dependent  on  the  will  of 
a  governor,  having  recovered  the  privileges  of  Englishmen, 
under  a  code  of  laws  of  their  own,  "  fell  to  building  houses 
and  planting  corn,"  and  henceforward  "  regarded  Virginia 
as  their  country." 

The  patriot  party  in  England,  who  now  controlled  the 
London  company,  engaged  with  earnestness  in  schemes  to 
advance  the  numbers  and  establish  the  liberties  of  their 
plantation.  No  intimidations,  not  even  threats  of  blood, 
could  deter  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  the  new  treasurer,  from 
investigating  and  reforming  the  abuses  by  which  its  prog- 
ress had  been  retarded.  At  his  accession  to  office,  after 
twelve  years'  labor,  and  an  expenditure  of  eighty  thousand 
pounds  by  the  company,  there  were  in  the  colony  no  more 
than  six  hundred  men,  women,  and  children ;  and  in  one 
year  the  company  and  private  adventurers  made  provision 
to  send  over  twelve  hundred  and  sixty-one  persons. 

To  the  other  titles  of  "  the  high  empress "  Elizabeth, 
Spenser  had,  just  before  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
added  that  of  "  queen  of  Virginia ; "  King  James,  who  was 
already  the  titular  sovereign  of  four  realms,  now  accepted 
as  the  motto  for  the  London  company's  coat-of-arms : 
"  Lo !  Virginia  gives  a  fifth  crown."  A  strong  interest 
took  hold  of  the  people  of  England ;  gifts  and  bequests 
came  in  for  "  the  sacred  work "  of  founding  a  colonial 
college  and  building  up  the  colonial  church.  There  were  two 
poets,  of  whose  works  Richard  Baxter  said  that  he  found 
"  none  so  savoury  next  to  the  Scripture  poems."  Of  these, 
George  Sandys,  son  of  the  archbishop  of  York,  himself 
repaired  to  Virginia  as  its  resident  treasurer,  to  assist  in 
establishing  "a  rich  and  well  peopled  kingdom;"  and 
George  Herbert,  the  bosom  friend  of  Nicholas  Ferrar, 
expressed  the  feeling  of  the  best  men  of  England  when  he 
wrote :  —  Religion  stands  on  tip-toe  in  our  land, 
Readie  to  passe  to  the  American  strand. 

The  quarter  session,  held  on  the  seventeenth  of 
May,  1620,  was  attended  by  near  five  hundred  per- 
sons,  among  whom  were  twenty  great  peers  of  the 


122  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

land ;  near  a  hundred  knights  of  the  kingdom ;  as  many 
more  officers  of  the  army,  and  renowned  lawyers;  and 
numerous  merchants  and  men  of  business.  It  was  the  gen- 
eral wish  of  the  company  to  continue  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  in 
his  high  office ;  but,  before  they  proceeded  to  ballot,  an  agent 
from  the  palace  presented  himself  with  the  message  that,  out 
of  especial  care  for  the  plantation,  the  king  nominated  unto 
them  four,  of  whom  his  pleasure  was  the  company  should 
choose  one  to  be  their  treasurer.  Desiring  the  royal  mes- 
senger to  remain,  Southampton  entered  into  a  defence  of 
the  patent,  and  added  :  "  The  hopeful  country  of  Virginia 
is  a  land  which  will  find  full  employment  for  all  needy  peo- 
ple, will  provide  estates  for  all  younger  brothers,  gentlemen 
of  this  kingdom,  and  will  supply  this  nation  with  commodi- 
ties we  are  fain  to  fetch  from  foreign  nations,  from  doubt- 
ful friends,  yea,  from  heathen  princes.  This  business  is  of 
so  great  concernment  that  it  never  can  be  too  solemnly,  too 
thoroughly,  or  too  publicly  examined."  Sir  Laurens  Hyde, 
the  learned  lawyer,  asked  that  the  patent  given  under  the 
great  seal  of  England,  the  hand  and  honor  of  a  king,  might 
be  produced.  "  The  patent ! "  "  The  patent !  "  cried  all ;  and, 
when  it  was  brought  forth  and  read,  Hyde  went  on  :  "  You 
see  the  point  of  electing  a  governor  is  thereby  left  to  your 
own  free  choice."  It  was  then  agreed  that  the  election 
should  be  put  off  until  the  next  great  and  general  court  in 
midsummer  term ;  and  a  committee  of  twelve,  with  South- 
ampton at  their  head,  was  in  the  interim  to  beseech  his 
majesty  not  to  take  from  them  the  privilege  of  their  letters 
patent.  Their  right  was  so  clear  that  the  king  explained 
away  his  interference  :  as  he  had  intended  no  more  than  to 
recommend  the  persons  whom  he  nominated,  and  not  to 
bar  the  company  from  the  choice  of  any  other. 

When  at  the  quarter  session,  near  the  end  of  June,  Sir 
Edwin  Sandys,  yielding  to  the  ill-will  of  the  king,  withdrew 
from  competition,  "  the  whole  court  immediately,  with  much 
joy  and  applause,  nominated  the  Earl  of  Southampton ; " 
and,  resolving  "  to  surcease  the  balloting  box,"  chose  him  by 
erection  of  hands.  In  response,  he  desired  them  all  to  put  on 
the  same  minds  with  which  he  accepted  the  place  of  treasurer. 


1621.  COLONIZATION   OF   VIRGINIA.  123 

He  made  the  condition  that  his  friend,  Sir  Edwin  Sandys, 
should  give  him  assistance ;  and  these,  with  Nicholas  Ferrar, 
were  the  men  who  for  a  time  managed  "  the  great  work  of 
redeeming  the  noble  plantation  of  Virginia  from  the  ruins 
that  seemed  to  hang  over  it : "  the  first  celebrated  for 
wisdom,  eloquence,  and  sweet  deportment;  Sandys,  for 
knowledge  and  integrity ;  and  Nicholas  Ferrar,  for  ability, 
unwearied  diligence,  and  the  strictest  virtue.  All  three 
were  sincere  members  of  the  British  church :  the  first,  a 
convert  from  papacy;  the  last,  pious  even  to  a  romantic 
excess :  all  three  were  royalists ;  and  all  three  were  ani- 
mated by  that  love  of  liberty  which  formed  a  part  of  the 
hereditary  patriotism  of  an  Englishman. 

Under  their  harmonious  direction,  the  policy  of  the  for- 
mer year  was  continued;  and  more  than  eleven  hundred 
persons  found  their  way  annually  to  Virginia.  Nor  must 
the  character  of  the  emigration  be  overlooked.  "The  peo- 
ple of  Virginia  had  not  been  settled  in  their  minds,"  and  as, 
before  the  recent  changes,  they  retained  the  design  of  ulti- 
mately returning  to  England,  it  was  necessary  to  multiply 
attachments  to  the  soil.  Few  women  had  dared  to  cross 
the  Atlantic ;  but  now  the  promise  of  prosperity  induced 
ninety  agreeable  persons,  young  and  incorrupt,  to  listen  to 
the  advice  of  Sandys,  and  embark  for  the  colony,  where 
they  were  assured  of  a  welcome.  They  were 'transported 
at  the  expense  of  the  company,  and  were  married  to  its 
tenants,  or  to  men  who  were  able  to  support  them,  and  who 
willingly  defrayed  the  costs  of  their  passage,  which  were 
rigorously  demanded.  The  adventure,  which  had  been  in 
part  a  mercantile  speculation,  succeeded  so  well  that 
it  was  proposed  to  send  the  next  year  another  con-  1020. 
eignment  of  one  hundred ;  but,  before  these  could  be 
collected,  the  company  found  itself  so  poor  that  its  design 
could  be  accomplished  only  by  a  subscription.  After 
some  delays,  sixty  were  actually  despatched,  maids  IGZL 
of  virtuous  education,  young,  handsome,  and  well  rec- 
ommended. The  price  rose  from  one  hundred  and  twenty 
to  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco,  or  even  more ; 
BO  that  all  the  original  charges  might  be  repaid.  The  debt 


124  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IV. 

for  a  wife  was  a  debt  of  honor,  and  took  precedence  of  any 
other ;  and  the  company,  in  conferring  employments,  gave 

a  preference  to  married  men.  With  domestic  ties, 
"621*.°  habits  of  thrift  were  formed.  Within  three  years, 

fifty  patents  for  land  were  granted,  and  a  state  rose 
on  solid  foundations  in  the  New  World.  Virginia  was  a 
place  of  refuge  even  for  Puritans. 

Beside  providing  for  emigration,  the  company,  under 
the  lead  of  Southampton,  proceeded  to  redress  former 
wrongs,  and  to  protect  colonial  liberty  by  written  guaran- 
tees. In  the  case  of  the  appeal  to  the  London  company 
from  sentence  of  death  pronounced  by  Argall,  his  friends, 
with  the  Earl  of  Warwick  at  their  head,  excused  him  by 
pretending  that  martial  law  is  the  noblest  kind  of  trial, 
because  soldiers  and  men  of  the  sword  were  the  judges. 
This  opinion  was  overthrown,  and  the  right  of  the  colonists 
to  trial  by  jury  sustained.  Nor  was  it  long  before  the  free- 
dom of  the  northern  fisheries  was  equally  asserted,  and  the 
monopoly  of  a  rival  corporation  successfully  opposed.  Lord 
Bacon,  who,  at  the  time  of  Newport's  first  voyage  with 
emigrants  for  Virginia,  classed  the  enterprise  with  the 
romance  of  "  Amadis  de  Gaul,"  now  said  of  the  plantation : 
"  Certainly  it  is  with  the  kingdoms  of  earth  as  it  is  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  sometimes  a  grain  of  mustard-seed 
proves  a  great  tree.  Who  can  tell  ?  "  "  Should  the  plan- 
tation go  on  increasing  as  under  the  government  of  that 
popular  Lord  Southampton,"  said  Gondomar,  then  Spanish 
ambassador  in  England,  "  my  master's  West  Indies  and  his 
Mexico  will  shortly  be  visited,  by  sea  and  by  land,  from 
those  planters  in  Virginia." 

The  company  had  silently  approved  the  colonial  assembly 
which  had  been  convened  by  Sir  George  Yeardley ;  on  the 
twenty-fourth  of  July,  1621,  a  memorable  ordinance  estab- 
lished for  the  colony  a  written  constitution.  The  prescribed 
form  of  government  was  analogous  to  the  English  constitu- 
tion, and  was,  with  some  modifications,  the  model  of  the 
systems  which  were  afterwards  introduced  into  the  various 
royal  provinces.  Its  purpose  was  declared  to  be  "  the  great- 
est comfort  and  benefit  to  the  people,  and  the  prevention  of 


1621.  COLONIZATION  OF  VIRGINIA.  125 

injustice,  grievances,  and  oppression."  Its  terms  are  few 
and  simple  :  a  governor,  to  be  appointed  by  the  company ; 
a  permanent  council,  likewise  to  be  appointed  by  the  com- 
pany ;  a  general  assembly,  to  be  convened  yearly,  and  to 
consist  of  the  members  of  the  council,  and  of  two  burgesses 
to  be  chosen  from  each  of  the  several  plantations  by  the 
respective  inhabitants.  The  assembly  might  exercise  full 
legislative  authority,  a  negative  voice  being  reserved  to  the 
governor ;  but  no  law  or  ordinance  would  be  valid,  unless 
ratified  by  the  company  in  England.  It  was  further  agreed 
that,  after  the  government  of  the  colony  should  have  once 
been  framed,  no  orders  of  the  court  in  London  should  bind 
the  colony,  unless  they  should  in  like  manner  be  ratified  by 
the  general  assembly.  The  courts  of  justice  were  required 
to  conform  to  the  laws  and  manner  of  trial  used  in  the  realm 
of  England. 

Such  was  the  constitution  which  Sir  Francis  Wyatt,  the 
successor  of  the  mild  but  inefficient  Yeardley,  was  commis- 
sioned to  bear  to  the  colony.  The  system  of  representative 
government  and  trial  by  jury  thus  became  in  the  new  hem- 
isphere an  acknowledged  right.  On  this  ordinance  Virginia 
erected  the  superstructure  of  her  liberties.  Its  influences 
were  wide  and  enduring,  and  can  be  traced  through  all  her 
history.  It  constituted  the  plantation,  in  its  infancy,  a 
nursery  of  freemen ;  and  succeeding  generations  learned  to 
cherish  institutions  which  were  as  old  as  the  first  period  of 
the  prosperity  of  their  fathers.  The  privileges  then  con- 
ceded could  never  be  wrested  from  the  Virginians ;  and,  as 
new  colonies  arose  at  the  south,  their  proprietaries  could 
hope  to  win  emigrants  only  by  bestowing  franchises  as  large 
as  those  enjoyed  by  their  elder  rival.  The  London  company 
merits  the  praise  of  having  auspicated  liberty  in  America. 
It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  public  act  during  the  reign 
of  King  James  was  of  more  permanent  or  pervading  influ- 
ence ;  and  it  reflects  honor  on  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  the  Earl 
of  Southampton,  Nicholas  Ferrar,  and  the  patriot  royalists 
of  England,  that,  though  they  were  unable  to  establish  guar- 
antees of  a  liberal  administration  at  home,  they  were  care- 
ful to  connect  popular  freedom  inseparably  with  the  life, 
prosperity,  and  state  of  society  of  Virginia. 


126  COLONIAL  HISTOET.  CHAP.  V. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SLAVERY.       DISSOLUTION   OF    THE    LONDON   COMPANY. 

WHILE  Virginia,  by  the  concession  of  a  representative 
government,  was  constituted  the  asylum  of  liberty,  by  one 
of  the  strange  contradictions  in  human  affairs  it  became  the 
abode  of  hereditary  bondsmen.  The  unjust,  wasteful,  and 
unhappy  system  was  fastened  upon  the  rising  institutions  of 
America,  not  by  the  consent  of  the  corporation  nor  the 
desires  of  the  emigrants ;  but,  as  it  was  introduced  by  the 
mercantile  avarice  of  a  foreign  nation,  so  it  was  subsequently 
riveted  by  the  policy  of  England,  without  regard  to  the 
interests  or  the  wishes  of  the  colony. 

Slavery  and  the  slave-trade,  though  not  so  old  as  freedom, 
are  older  than  the  records  of  human  society  :  they  are  found 
to  have  existed  wherever  the  savage  hunter  began  to  assume 
the  habits  of  pastoral  or  agricultural  life ;  and,  with  the 
exception  of  Australasia,  they  have  extended  to  every  por- 
tion of  the  globe.  They  pervaded  every  nation  of  civilized 
antiquity.  The  earliest  glimpses  of  Egyptian  history  exhibit 
pictures  of  bondage ;  the  oldest  monuments  of  human  labor 
on  the  Egyptian  soil  are  evidently  the  results  of  slave  labor. 
The  founder  of  the  Jewish  nation  was  a  slave-holder  and  a 
purchaser  of  slaves.  Every  patriarch  was  lord  in  his  own 
household. 

The  Hebrews,  when  they  burst  the  bands  of  their  own 
thraldom,  carried  with  them  beyond  the  desert  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery.  The  light  that  broke  from  Sinai  scattered 
the  illusions  of  polytheism  ;  but  slavery  planted  itself  even 
in  the  promised  land.  The  Hebrew  father  might  doom  his 
daughter  to  bondage ;  the  wife  and  children  and  posterity 
of  the  emancipated  slave  remained  the  property  of  the  mas- 
ter and  his  heirs ;  and  if  a  slave,  though  mortally  wounded 
by  his  master,  did  but  languish  of  his  wounds  for  a  day,  the 


CHAP.  V.  SLAVERY.  127 

owner  escaped  with  impunity ;  for  the  slave  was  his  master's 
money.  It  is  even  probable  that,  at  a  later  period,  a  man's 
family  might  be  sold  for  the  payment  of  debts. 

The  countries  that  bordered  on  Palestine  were  equally 
familiar  with  domestic  servitude ;  and  Tyre,  the  oldest  and 
most  famous  commercial  city  of  Phoenicia,  was,  like  Babylon, 
a  market  "  for  the  persons  of  men."  The  Scythians  of  +hc 
desert  had  already  established  slavery  throxighout  the  plains 
and  forests  of  the  unknown  north. 

Old  as  are  the  traditions  of  Greece,  the  existence  of  sla- 
very is  older.  The  wrath  of  Achilles  grew  out  of  a  quarrel 
for  a  slave ;  the  Grecian  dames  had  crowds  of  servile  attend 
ants ;  the  heroes  before  Troy  made  excursions  into  the  neigh- 
boring villages  and  towns  to  enslave  the  inhabitants.  Greek 
pirates,  roving,  like  the  corsairs  of  Barbary,  in  quest  of  men, 
laid  the  foundations  of  Greek  commerce ;  each  commercial 
town  was  a  slave-mart ;  and  every  cottage  near  the  seaside 
was  in  danger  from  the  kidnapper.  Greeks  enslaved  each 
other.  The  language  of  Homer  was  the  mother  tongue  of 
the  Helots ;  the  Grecian  city  that  made  war  on  its  neighbor 
city  exulted  in  its  captives  as  a  source  of  profit ;  the  hero 
of  Macedon  sold  men  of  his  own  kindred  and  language 
into  hopeless  slavery.  More  than  four  centuries  before  the 
Christian  era,  Alcidamas,  a  pupil  of  Gorgias,  taught  that 
"  God  has  sent  forth  all  men  free ;  nature  has  made  no  man 
slave."  While  one  class  of  Greek  authors  of  that  period 
confounded  the  authority  of  master  and  head  of  a  family, 
others  asserted  that  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  is  con- 
ventional ;  that  freedom  is  the  law  of  nature,  which  knows 
no  difference  between  master  and  slave;  that  slavery  is 
therefore  the  child  of  violence,  and  inherently  unjust.  "  A 
man,  O  my  master,"  so  speaks  the  slave  in  a  comedy  of 
Philemon,  "  because  he  is  a  slave,  does  not  cease  to  be  a  man. 
He  is  of  the  same  flesh  with  you.  Nature  makes  no  slaves." 
Aristotle,  though  he  recognises  "  living  chattels  "  as  a  com- 
ponent part  of  the  complete  family,  has  left  on  record  his 
most  deliberate  judgment,  that  the  prize  of  freedom  should 
be  placed  within  the  reach  of  every  slave.  Yet  the  idea 
of  universal  free  labor  was  only  a  dormant  bud,  not  to  be 


COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  V. 

quickened  for  many  centuries.  In  every  Grecian  republic 
slavery  was  an  element. 

The  diffusion  of  bondage  throughout  the  dominions  of 
Rome,  and  the  severities  of  the  law  towards  the  slave, 
hastened  the  fall  of  the  commonwealth.  The  power  of  the 
father  to  sell  his  children,  of  the  creditor  to  sell  his  insol- 
vent debtor,  of  the  warrior  to  sell  his  captive,  carried  the 
influence  of  the  institution  into  the  bosom  of  every  family ; 
into  the  conditions  of  every  contract;  into  the  heart  of 
every  unhappy  land  that  was  invaded  by  the  Roman  eagle. 
The  slave-markets  of  Rome  were  filled  with  men  of  vari- 
ous nations  and  colors.  "  Slaves  are  they !  "  writes  Seneca ; 
"  say  that  they  are  men."  "  By  the  law  of  nature,  all  men 
are  born  free,"  are  the  words  of  Ulpian,  who  held  that 
slavery  first  came  in  by  the  law  of  man.  The  Roman  di- 
gests pronounced  slavery  "  contrary  to  nature." 

The  middle  age  witnessed  rather  a  change  in  the  channels 
of  the  slave-trade,  than  a  diminution  of  its  evils.  The 
pirate  and  the  kidnapper  and  the  conqueror  still  continued 
their  pursuits.  The  Saxon  race  carried  the  most  repulsive 
forms  of  slavery  to  England,  where  not  half  the  population 
could  assert  a  right  to  freedom,  and  where  the  price  of  a 
man  was  but  four  times  the  price  of  an  ox.  The  impor- 
tation of  foreign  slaves  was  freely  tolerated ;  in  defiance  of 
severe  penalties,  the  Saxons  sold  their  own  kindred  into 
slavery  on  the  continent ;  nor  could  the  traffic  be  checked, 
till  religion,  pleading  the  cause  of  humanity,  made  its  appeal 
to  conscience.  Even  after  the  conquest,  slaves  were 
1102.  exported  from  England  to  Ireland,  till  the  reign  of 
Henry  II.,  when  a  national  synod  of  the  Irish,  to 
remove  the  pretext  for  an  invasion,  decreed  the  emancipa- 
tion of  all  English  slaves  in  the  island. 

The  German  nations  made  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  the 
scenes  of  the  same  desolating  traffic;  and  the  Dnieper 
formed  the  highway  on  which  Russian  merchants  conveyed 
to  Constantinople  the  slaves  that  had  been  purchased  in  the 
markets  of  Russia.  The  wretched  often  submitted  to  bond- 
age, as  the  only  refuge  from  want.  But  it  was  the  long 
wars  between  German  and  Slavonic  tribes  which  imparted 


CHAP.  V.  SLAVERY.  129 

to  the  slave-trade  its  greatest  activity,  and  filled  France  and 
the  neighboring  states  with  such  numbers  of  victims  that 
they  gave  the  name  of  the  Slavonic  nation  to  servitude 
itself;  and  every  country  of  Western  Europe  still  pre- 
serves in  its  language  the  record  of  the  barbarous  traffic 
in  "Slaves." 

Nor  did  France  abstain  from  the  slave-trade.  At  Lyons 
and.  Verdun,  the  Jews  were  able  to  purchase  slaves  for 
their  Saracen  customers. 

In  Sicily,  and  perhaps  in  Italy,  the  children  of  Asia  and 
Africa,  in  their  turn,  were  exposed  for  sale.  In  the  extrem- 
ity of  poverty,  the  Arab  father  would  sometimes  pawn 
even  his  children  to  the  Italian  merchant,  in  the  vain  hope 
of  soon  effecting  their  ransom.  Rome  itself  long  remained 
a  mart  where  Christian  slaves  were  exposed  for  sale,  to  sup- 
ply the  domestic  market  of  Mahometans.  The  Venetians, 
in  their  commercial  intercourse  with  the  ports  of  unbeliev- 
ing nations,  as  well  as  with  Rome,  purchased  alike  infidels 
and  Christians,  and  sold  them  again  to  the  Arabs  in  Sicily 
and  Spain.  Christian  and  Jewish  avarice  supplied  the 
slave-market  of  the  Saracens.  What  though  the  trade  was 
exposed  to  the  censure  of  the  church,  and  prohibited  by  the 
laws  of  Venice  ?  It  could  not  be  effectually  checked,  till, 
by  the  Venetian  law,  no  slave  might  enter  a  Venetian  ship, 
and  to  tread  the  deck  of  an  argosy  of  Venice  became  the 
privilege  and  the  evidence  of  freedom. 

The  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion  might,  before  the  dis- 
covery of  America,  have  led  to  the  abolition  of  the  slave- 
trade,  but  for  the  hostility  between  the  Christian  church 
and  the  followers  of  Mahomet.  In  the  twelfth  century,  Pope 
Alexander  III.,  true  to  the  spirit  of  his  office,  which,  during 
the  supremacy  of  brute  force  in  the  middle  age,  made  of 
the  chief  minister  of  religion  the  tribune  of  the  people  and 
the  guardian  of  the  oppressed,  had  written  that,  "nature 
having  made  no  slaves,  all  men  have  an  equal  right  to  lib- 
erty." But  the  slave-trade  had  never  relented  among  the 
Mahometans :  the  captive  Christian  had  no  alternative  but 
apostasy  or  servitude,  and  the  captive  infidel  was  treated  in 
Christendom  with  corresponding  intolerance.  In  the  camp 
VOL.  i.  9 


130  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  V. 

of  the  leader  whose  pious  arms  redeemed  the  sepulchre  of 
Christ  from  the  mixed  nations  of  Asia  and  Libya,  the  price 
of  a  war-horse  was  three  slaves.  The  Turks,  whose  law 
forbade  the  enslaving  of  Mussulmans,  continued  to  sell  Chris- 
tian and  other  captives;  and  the  famous  captain  of  Vir- 
ginia relates  that  he  was  himself  a  fugitive  from  Turkish 
bondage. 

All  this  mi<rht  have  had  no  influence  on  the  destinies  of 

O 

America,  but  for  the  long  and  doubtful  struggles  between 
Christians  and  Moors  in  the  west  of  Europe ;  where,  for 
more  than  seven  centuries,  and  in  more  than  three  thousand 
battles,  the  two  religions  were  arrayed  against  each  other ; 
and  bondage  was  the  reciprocal  doom  of  the  captive.  Big- 
otry inflamed  revenge,  and  animated  the  spirit  of  merciless 
and  exterminating  warfare.  France  and  Italy  were  filled 
with  Saracen  slaves ;  the  number  of  them  sold  into  Chris- 
tian bondage  exceeded  the  number  of  all  the  Christians 
ever  sold  by  the  pirates  of  Barbary.  The  clergy,  who  had 
pleaded  successfully  for  the  Christian,  felt  no  sympathy  for 
the  unbeliever.  The  final  victory  of  the  Spaniards  over  the 
Moors  of  Granada,  an  event  contemporary  with  the  dis- 
covery of  America,  was  signalized  by  a  great  emigration 
of  the  Moors  to  the  coasts  of  Northern  Africa,  where  each 
mercantile  city  became  a  nest  of  pirates,  and  every  Chris- 
tian the  Avonted  booty  of  the  successful  corsair.  Servitude 
was  thus  the  doom  of  the  Christian  in  Northern  Africa : 
the  hatred  of  the  Moorish  dominion  extending  to  all  Africa, 
an  indiscriminate  and  retaliating  bigotry  felt  no  remorse  at 
dooming  the  sons  of  Africa  to  bondage.  All  Africans  were 
esteemed  as  Moors. 

The  amelioration  of  the  customs  of  Europe  had  pro- 
ceeded from  the  influence  of  religion.  It  was  the  clergy 
who  had  broken  up  the  Christian  slave-markets  at  Bristol 
and  at  Hamburg,  at  Lyons  and  at  Rome.  The  jurists 
of  France  came  to  their  aid ;  and  in  language  addressed 

half  to  the  courts  of  law  and  half  to  the  people,  in 
1315.       July,  1315,  Louis  X.  by  their  advice  published  the 

ordinance,  that  by  the  law  of  nature  every  man  ought 
to  be  born  free,  that  serfs  were  held  in  bondage  only  by  a 


CHAP.  V.  SLAVERY.  131 

suspension  of  their  early  and  natural  rights,  that  liberty 
should  be  restored  to  them  throughout  the  kingdom  so  far 
as  the  royal  power  extended ;  and  all  masters  of  slaves  were 
invited  to  follow  his  example  by  bringing  them  all  back  to 
their  original  state  of  freedom.  Some  years  later,  John 
de  "Wycliffe  asserted  strongly  the  unchristian  character  of 
slavery.  At  the  epoch  of  the  discovery  of  America,  the 
moral  opinion  of  the  civilized  world  had  abolished  the  traffic 
in  Christian  slaves,  and  was  fast  demanding  the  emancipa- 
tion of  the  serfs :  but  bigotry  had  favored  a  compromise 
with  avarice ;  and  the  infidel  was  not  yet  included  within 
the  pale  of  humanity. 

Yet  negro  slavery  is  not  an  invention  of  the  white  man. 
As  Greeks  enslaved  Greeks,  as  the  Hebrew  often  consented 
to  make  the  Hebrew  his  absolute  lord,  as  Anglo-Saxons 
trafficked  in  Anglo-Saxons,  so  the  negro  race  enslaved  its 
own  brethren.  The  oldest  accounts  of  the  land  of  the 
negroes,  like  the  glimmering  traditions  of  Egypt  and  Phoe- 
nicia, of  Greece  and  of  Rome,  bear  witness  to  the  existence 
of  domestic  slavery  and  the  caravans  of  dealers  in  negro 
slaves.  The  oldest  Greek  historian  commemorates  the 
traffic.  Negro  slaves  were  seen  in  classic  Greece,  and  were 
known  at  Rome  and  in  the  Roman  empire.  From  about 
the  year  990,  regular  accounts  of  the  negro  slave-trade  exist. 
At  that  period,  Moorish  merchants  from  the  Barbary  coast 
first  reached  the  cities  of  Nigritia,  and  established  an  unin- 
terrupted exchange  of  Saracen  and  European  luxuries  for 
the  gold  and  slaves  of  Central  Africa.  Whole  caravans 
were  sometimes  buried  in  the  sands  of  the  desert,  and  at 
others  were  without  shade  and  without  water ;  yet  the  com- 
merce extended  because  it  was  profitable.  Before  Colum- 
bus had  opened  the  path  to  a  new  world,  the  negro  slave- 
trade  had  been  reduced  to  a  system  by  the  Moors,  and  had 
spread  from  the  native  regions  of  the  Ethiopian  race  to 
the  heart  of  Egypt  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  coasts  of 
Barbary  on  the  other.  The  traffic  of  Europeans  in  negro 
slaves  was  established  before  the  colonization  of  the  United 
States,  and  had  existed  a  half  century  before  the  discovery  of 
America. 


132  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  V. 

1415.          Not  long  after  the  first  conquests  of  the  Portuguese 

in  Barbary,  the  passion  for  gain,  the  love  of  conquest, 
and  the  hatred  of  the  infidels,  conducted  their  navy  to  the 

ports  of  Western  Africa ;  and  the  first  ships  which 
1441.  sailed  so  far  south  as  Cape  Blanco  returned  not 

with  negroes,  but  with  Moors.  The  subjects  of  this 
importation  were  treated  not  as  laborers,  but  rather  as 
strangers,  from  whom  information  respecting  their  native 

country  was  to  be  derived.     Antony  Gonzalez,  who 

1443.  had  brought  them  to  Portugal,  was  commanded  to 
restore  them  to  their  ancient  homes.     He  did  so  ;  and 

the   Moors  gave  him  as  their  ransom  not  gold  only,  but 

"  black  Moors  "  with  curled  hair.     Thus  negro  slaves  came 

into  Europe  ;  and  mercantile  cupidity  immediately  observed 

that  they  might  become  an  object  of  lucrative  com- 

1444.  merce.     Other  ships  were  despatched  without  delay. 
Spain  also  engaged  in  the  traffic  :  the  historian  of  her 

maritime  discoveries  even  claims  for  her  the  unenviable 
distinction  of  having  anticipated  the  Portuguese  in  intro- 
ducing negroes  into  Europe.  The  merchants  of  Seville 
imported  gold  dust  and  slaves  from  the  western  coast  of 
Africa ;  and  negro  slavery,  though  the  severity  of  bondage 
was  mitigated  by  benevolent  legislation,  was  established  in 
Andalusia,  and  "  abounded  in  the  city  of  Seville,"  before  the 
enterprise  of  Columbus  was  conceived. 

The  maritime  adventurers  of  those  days,  joining  the  prin- 
ciples of  bigots  with  the  bold  designs  of  pirates  and  heroes, 
esteemed  the  wealth  of  the  countries  which  they  might  dis- 
cover as  their  rightful  plunder,  and  the  inhabitants,  if  Chris- 
tians, as  their  subjects,  if  infidels,  as  their  slaves.  Even 
Indians  of  Hispaniola  were  imported  into  Spain.  Cargoes 
of  the  natives  of  the  north  were  early  and  repeatedly  kid- 
napped. The  coasts  of  America,  like  the  coasts  of  Africa, 
were  visited  by  ships  in  search  of  laborers  ;  and  there  was 
hardly  a  convenient  harbor  on  the  Atlantic  frontier  of  the 
United  States  which  was  not  entered  by  slavers.  The 
native  Indians  themselves  were  ever  ready  to  resist  the 
treacherous  merchant ;  the  freemen  of  the  wilderness,  unlike 
the  Africans,  among  whom  slavery  had  existed  from  imme- 


CHAP.  V.  SLAVERY.  133 

inorial   time,  would  never  abet  the  foreign  merchant,  or 
become  his  factors  in  the  nefarious  traffic.     Fraud  and  force 
remained,  therefore,  the  means  by  which,  near  Newfound- 
land or  Florida,  on  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  or  among  the 
Indians  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  Cortereal  and  Vasquez  de 
Ayllon,  Porcallo  and  Soto,  with  private  adventurers,  whose 
names  and  whose  crimes  may  be  left  unrecorded,  transported 
the  natives  of  North  America  into  slavery  in  Europe  and 
the  Spanish  West  Indies.     The  glory  of  Columbus 
himself  did  not  escape  the  stain  :  enslaving  five  hun-       1494. 
dred  native  Americans,  he  sent  them  to  Spain,  that 
they  might  be  publicly  sold  at  Seville.     The  generous 
Isabella  commanded  the  liberation   of  the  Indians       1500. 
held  in  bondage  in  her  European  possessions.     Yet 
her  active  benevolence   extended    neither   to   the   Moors, 
whose  valor  had  been  punished  by  slavery,  nor  to  the  Afri- 
cans ;   and   even  her  compassion  for  the  New  World  was 
but  the  transient  feeling,  which  relieves  the  miserable  who 
are  in  sight,  not  the  deliberate  application  of  a  just  prin- 
ciple.  The  commissions  for  making  discoveries,  issued 
a  few  days  before  and  after  her  interference  to  rescue    June  5 
those  whom  Columbus  had  enslaved,  reserved  for  her-    July  5. 
self  and  Ferdinand  a  fourth  part  of  the  slaves  which 
the  new  kingdoms  might  contain.     The  slavery  of       1501. 
Indians  was  recognised  as  lawful. 

The  practice  of  selling  the  natives  of  North  America  into 
foreign  bondage  continued  for  nearly  two  centuries;  and 
even  the  sternest  morality  pronounced  the  sentence  of  sla- 
very and  exile  on  the  captives  whom  the  field  of  battle 
had  spared.  The  excellent  Winthrop  enumerates  Indians 
among  his  bequests.  The  articles  of  the  early  New  Eng- 
land confederacy  class  persons  among  the  spoils  of  war. 
A  scanty  remnant  of  the  Pequod  tribe  in  Connecticut,  the 
captives  treacherously  made  by  Waldron  in  New  Hamp- 
shire, the  harmless  fragments  of  the  tribe  of  Annawon,  the 
orphan  offspring  of  King  Philip  himself,  were  all  doomed 
to  the  same  hard  destiny  of  perpetual  bondage.  The  clans 
of  Virginia  and  Carolina,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years, 
were  hardly  safe  against  the  kidnapper.  The  universal 
public  mind  was  long  and  deeply  vitiated. 


134  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  V. 

It  was  not  Las   Casas  who  first  suggested  the  plan  of 
transporting  African  slaves  to  Hispaniola;  Spanish  slave- 
holders, as  they  emigrated,  took  with  them  their  negroes. 
The  emigration  may  at  first  have  been  contraband ; 
isoi.      but  a  royal  edict  of  1501  permitted  negro  slaves,  born 
in  slavery  among  Christians,  to  be   transported   to 
loos.       Hispaniola.    Within  two  years,  there  were  such  num- 
bers  of   Africans  in   Hispaniola  that   Ovando,   the 
governor  of  the  island,  entreated  that  the  importa- 
tion might  no  longer  be  permitted.     For  a  short  time  the 
Spanish   government   forbade   the    introduction    of    negro 
slaves,  who  had  been  bred  in  Moorish  families,  and  allowed 
only  those  who  were  said  to  have  been  instructed  in  the 
Christian  faith  to  be  transported  to  the  West  Indies,  under 
the  plea  that  they  might  assist  in  converting  the  infidel 
nations.    But  the  idle  pretence  was  soon  abandoned.     Be- 
sides, the  culture  of  sugar  was  now  successfully  begun ;  and 
the  system  of    slavery,  already  riveted,  was  not  long  re- 
strained by  the  scruples  of  men  in  power.     King  Ferdinand 
himself  sent  from  Seville  fifty  slaves  to  labor  in  the  mines, 
and  promised  to  send  more ;  and,  because  it  was  said  that 
one  negro  could  do  the  work  of  four  Indians,  the  direct 
transportation  of  slaves  from  Guinea  to  Hispaniola 
1511.       was,  in  1511,  enjoined  by  a  royal   ordinance,  and 
deliberately  sanctioned  by  repeated  decrees  in  the 
following  years.     Was  it  not  natural  that  Charles  V.,  a 
youthful  monarch,  surrounded   at  his   accession   in 

1516.  1516  by  rapacious   courtiers,   should   have    readily 
granted  licenses  to  the  Flemings  to  transport  negroes 

to  the  colonies  ?  The  benevolent  Las  Casas,  who  felt  for 
the  native  inhabitants  of  the  New  World  all  that  an  ardent 
charity  and  the  purest  missionary  zeal  could  inspire,  and 
who  had  seen  them  vanish  away,  like  dew,  before  the  cruel- 
ties of  the  Spaniards,  while  the  African  thrived  in  robust 
health  under  the  sun  of  Hispaniola,  in  the  year 

1517.  which  saw  the  dawn  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany 
suggested  that  negroes  might  still  further  be  employed 

to  perform  the  severe  toils  which  they  alone  could  endure. 
The  avarice  of  the  Flemings  greedily  seized  on  the  expedient  j 


1535.  SLAVERY.  135 

the  board  of  trade  at  Seville  was  consulted,  to  learn  how 
miiny  slaves  would  be  required.  It  had  been  proposed  to 
allow  four  for  each  Spanish  emigrant ;  deliberate  calculation 
fixed  the  number  esteemed  necessary  at  four  thou- 
sand. The  year  in  which  Charles  V.  led  an  expe-  isis. 
dition  against  Tunis,  to  check  the  piracies  of  the 
Barbary  states  and  to  emancipate  Christian  slaves  in  Africa, 
he  gave  an  open  sanction  to  the  African  slave-trade.  The 
sins  of  the  Moors  were  to  be  revenged  on  the  negroes  ;  and 
the  monopoly,  for  eight  years,  of  annually  importing  four 
thousand  slaves  into  the  West  Indies,  was  eagerly  seized  by 
La  Bresa,  a  favorite  of  the  Spanish  monarch,  and  was  sold 
to  the  Genoese,  who  purchased  their  cargoes  of  Portugal. 
We  shall,  at  a  later  period,  observe  a  stipulation  for  this 
lucrative  monopoly,  in  a  treaty  of  peace,  established  by  a 
European  congress ;  shall  witness  the  sovereign  of  the  most 
free  state  in  Europe  chaffering  for  a  fourth  part  of  its 
profits ;  and  shall  trace  its  intimate  connection  with  the  first 
in  that  series  of  wars  which  led  to  the  emancipation  of 
America.  Las  Casas  lived  to  repent  of  his  hasty  benevo- 
lence, declaring  afterwards  that  the  captivity  of  black  men 
is  as  iniquitous  as  that  of  Indians ;  and  he  feared  the  wrath 
of  divine  justice  for  having  favored  the  importation  of 
negro  slaves  into  the  western  hemisphere.  But  covetous- 
ness,  and  not  a  mistaken  compassion,  established  the  slave- 
trade,  which  had  nearly  received  its  development  before 
the  voice  of  charity  was  heard  in  defence  of  the  Indians. 
Reason,  policy,  and  religion  alike  condemned  the  traffic. 
A  series  of  papal  bulls  had  indeed  secured  to  the  Portuguese 
the  exclusive  commerce  with  Western  Africa;  but  the 
slave-trade  between  Africa  and  America  was,  I  believe, 
never  expressly  sanctioned  by  the  see  of  Rome.  Even  Leo 
X.,  though  his  voluptuous  life,  making  of  his  pontificate 
a  continued  carnival,  might  have  deadened  the  sentiments 
of  humanity  and  justice,  declared  that  "not  the  Christian 
religion  only,  but  nature  herself,  cries  out  against  the  state 
of  slavery."  Yet  Paul  III.,  when  in  a  bull  of  the 
thirtieth  of  August,  1535,  he  called  upon  all  princes  was. 
to  take  up  arms  against  the  rebellious  Henry  VIII.  of 


136  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  V. 

England  and  his  accomplices,  gave  authority  to  make  slaves 
of  every  English  person  who  would  not  assist  in  tho 
jSio.  expulsion  of  their  king.  But,  two  years  later,  the 
same  pontiff,  in  two  separate  briefs,  imprecated  a 
curse  on  the  Europeans  who  should  enslave  Indians,  or  any 
other  class  of  men.  It  even  became  usual  for  Spanish  ves- 
sels, when  they  sailed  on  a  voyage  of  discovery,  to  be  attended 
by  a  priest,  whose  duty  it  was  to  prevent  the  kidnapping  of 
the  aborigines.  The  legislation  of  independent  America  has 
been  emphatic  in  denouncing  the  hasty  avarice  which  entailed 
the  anomaly  of  negro  slavery  in  the  midst  of  liberty.  Ximenes, 
the  gifted  coadjutor  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  the  stern  grand 
inquisitor,  the  austere  but  ambitious  Franciscan,  foresaw 
the  danger  which  it  required  centuries  to  reveal,  and  refused 
to  sanction  the  introduction  of  negroes  into  Hispaniola ; 
believing  that  the  favorable  climate  would  increase  their 
numbers,  and  infallibly  lead  them  to  a  successful  revolt. 
A  severe  retribution  has  manifested  his  sagacity :  Hayti, 
the  first  spot  in  America  that  received  African  slaves,  was 
the  first  to  set  the  example  of  African  liberty.  But  for  the 
slave-trade,  the  African  race  would  have  had  no  inheritance 
in  the  New  World. 

The  odious  distinction  of  having  first  interested  England 
in  the  slave-trade  belongs  to  Sir  John  Hawkins.     In 
1562.       1562,  he  transported  a  large  cargo  of  Africans  to 
Hispaniola;   the  rich  returns  of  sugar,  ginger,  and 
pearls,  attracted  the  notice  of  Queen  Elizabeth ;  and 
1567.       when,  five  years  later,  a  new  expedition  was  prepared, 
she  was  induced  not  only  to  protect,  but  to  share 
the  traffic.     Hawkins  himself  relates  of  one  of  his  expedi- 
tions, that  he  set  fire  to  a  city,  of  which  the  huts  were 
covered  with  dry  palm-leaves,  and,  out  of  eight  thousand 
inhabitants,  succeeded  in  seizing  two  hundred   and   fifty. 
The  self-approving  frankness  with  which  he  avows  the  deed, 
and  the  lustre  which  his  fame  acquired,  display  the  depravity 
of  public  sentiment  in  his  time.     In  all  other  emergencies, 
he  knew  how  to  pity  the  unfortunate,  and  with  cheerful 
liberality  relieve  their  wants,  even  when  they  were  not  his 
countrymen.     Yet  the  commerce,  on  the  part  of  the  English, 


1646.  SLAVERY.  137 

in  Spanish  ports  was  by  the  laws  of  Spain  illicit,  as  well  as 
by  the  laws  of  morals  detestable  ;  and  when  the  sovereign 
of  England  participated  in  its  hazards,  its  profits,  and  its 
crimes,  she  became  at  once  a  smuggler  and  a  slave-mer- 
chant. 

The  earliest  importation  of  negro  slaves  into  New 
England  was  made  in  1637,  from  Providence  Isle,  IGST. 
in  the  Salem  ship  "  Desire."  A  ship  of  one  James  1645. 
Smith,  a  member  of  the  church  of  Boston,  and  one 
Thomas  Keyser,  first  brought  upon  the  colonies  the  guilt  of 
participating  in  the  direct  traffic  with  Africa  for  slaves.  In 
1645,  they  sailed  "  for  Guinea  to  trade  for  negroes."  When 
they  arrived  there,  they  joined  with  "  some  Londoners," 
and  "  upon  the  Lord's  day  invited  the  natives  aboard  one 
of  their  ships."  Such  as  came  they  kept  prisoners.  Then, 
landing  men,  they  assaulted  a  town,  which  they  burned, 
killing  some  of  the  people.  But  throughout  Massachu- 
setts, where  slavery  could  plead  the  sanction  of  positive 
law,  and  where  a  very  few  blacks  as  well  as  Indians  were 
already  held  in  bondage,  a  cry  was  raised  against  "  such  vile 
and  most  odious  courses,  abhorred  of  all  good  and  just 
men."  Richard  Saltonstall,  a  worthy  assistant,  who  "truly 
endeavored  the  advance  of  the  gospel,  and  the  good  of 
the  people,"  denounced  the  "acts  of  murder,  of  stealing 
negroes,  and  of  chasing  them  upon  the  Sabbath  day,"  as 
"  directly  contrary  to  the  laws  of  God  and  the  laws  of  this 
jurisdiction;"  the  guilty  men  were  committed  for  the  of- 
fence, and  escaped  punishment  only  because  the  court 
could  not  take  cognizance  of  crimes  committed  in 
foreign  lands.  In  the  next  year,  after  advice  with  1646. 
the  elders,  the  representatives  of  the  people,  bearing 
"  witness  against  the  heinous  crime  of  man-stealing,"  or- 
dered the  negroes  to  be  restored,  at  the  public  charge,  "  to 
their  native  country,  with  a  letter  expressing  the  indigna- 
tion of  the  general  court "  at  their  wrongs. 

When  George  Fox  visited  Barbados  in  1671,  he  enjoined 
it  upon  the  planters  that  they  should  "  deal  mildly  and 
gently  with  their  negroes ;  and  that,  after  certain  years  of 
servitude,  they  should  make  them  free."  His  idea  had 


138  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  V. 

been  anticipated  by  the  fellow-citizens  of  Gorton  and  Roger 
Williams.  On  the  eighteenth  of  May,  1652,  the  representa- 
tives of  Providence  and  Warwick,  perceiving  the  disposition 
of  people  in  the  colony  "  to  buy  negroes,"  and  hold  them 
"as  slaves  for  ever,"  enacted  that  "no  black  mankind" 
shall,  "  by  covenant,  bond,  or  otherwise,"  be  held  to  per- 
petual service  ;  the  master,  "  at  the  end  of  ten  years,  shall 
set  them  free,  as  the  manner  is  with  English  servants  ;  and 
that  man  that  will  not  let  "  his  slave  "  go  free,  or  shall  sell 
him  away,  to  the  end  that  he  may  be  enslaved  to  others  for 
a  longer  time,  shall  forfeit  to  the  colony  forty  pounds." 
Now  forty  pounds  was  nearly  twice  the  value  of  a  negro 
slave.  The  law  was  not  enforced  ;  but  the  principle  lived 
among  the  people. 

Conditional  servitude,  under  indentures  or  covenants,  had 
from  the  first  existed  in  Virginia.  Once  at  least  James 
sent  over  convicts,  and  once  at  least  the  city  of  London  a 
hundred  homeless  children  from  its  streets.  The  servant 
stood  to  his  master  in  the  relation  of  a  debtor,  bound  to  dis- 
charge the  costs  of  emigration  by  the  entire  employment  of 
his  powers  for  the  benefit  of  his  creditor.  Oppression  early 
ensued  :  men,  who  had  been  transported  into  Virginia  at 
an  expense  of  eight  or  ten  pounds,  were  sometimes  sold  for 
forty,  fifty,  or  even  threescore  pounds.  White  servants 
came  to  be  a  usual  article  of  traffic.  They  were  sold  in 
England  to  be  transported,  and  in  Virginia  were  resold  to 
the  highest  bidder ;  like  negroes,  they  were  to  be  purchased 
on  shipboard,  as  men  buy  horses  at  a  fair.  In  1672,  the 
average  price  in  the  colonies,  where  five  years  of  service 
were  due,  was  about  ten  pounds ;  while  a  negro  was  worth 
twenty  or  twenty-five  pounds.  So  usual  was  this  manner 
of  dealing  in  Englishmen,  that  not  the  Scots  only,  who 
were  taken  in  the  field  of  Dunbar,  were  sent  into  involun- 
tary servitude  in  New  England,  but  the  royalist  prisoners 
of  the  battle  of  Worcester ;  and  the  leaders  in  the  insurrec- 
tion of  Penruddoc,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrance  of  Haselrig 
and  Henry  Vane,  were  shipped  to  America.  At  the  corre- 
sponding period,  in  Ireland,  the  crowded  exportation  of 
Irish  Catholics  was  a  frequent  event,  and  was  attended 


CHAP.  V.  SLAVERY.  139 

by  aggravations  hardly  inferior  to  the  usual  atrocities  of  the 
African  slave-trade.  In  1685,  when  nearly  a  thousand  of 
the  prisoners,  condemned  for  participating  in  the  insurrec- 
tion of  Monmouth,  were  sentenced  to  transportation,  men 
and  women  of  influence  at  court  scrambled  for  the  con- 
victed insurgents  as  a  merchantable  commodity. 

The  condition  of  apprenticed  servants  in  Virginia  dif- 
fered from  that  of  slaves  chiefly  in  the  duration  of  their 
bondage ;  and  the  laws  of  the  colony  favored  their  early 
enfranchisement.  But  this  state  of  labor  easily  admitted 
the  introduction  of  perpetual  servitude.  The  commerce  of 
Virginia  had  been  at  first  monopolized  by  the  company; 
but,  as  its  management  for  the  benefit  of  the  corporation 
led  to  frequent  dissensions,  it  was  in  1620  laid  open  to  free 
competition.  In  the  month  of  August,  1619,  a  few  days 
only  after  the  first  representative  assembly  of  Virginia, 
about  sixteen  months  before  the  Plymouth  colony  landed  in 
America,  and  less  than  two  years  before  the  concession  of  a 
written  constitution,  and  five  years  after  the  commons  of 
France  had  petitioned  for  the  emancipation  of  every  serf 
in  every  fief,  a  Dutch  man-of-war  entered  James  River,  and 
landed  twenty  negroes  for  sale.  This  is,  indeed,  the  sad 
epoch  of  the  introduction  of  negro  slavery  in  the  English 
colonies ;  but  the  traffic  would  have  been  checked  in  its 
infancy,  had  its  profits  remained  with  the  Dutch.  Thirty 
years  after  this  first  importation  of  Africans,  the  increase 
had  been  so  inconsiderable  that  to  one  black  Virginia  con- 
tained fifty  whites  ;  and,  after  seventy  years  of  its  colonial  ex- 
istence, the  number  of  its  negro  slaves  was  proportionably 
much  less  than  in  several  northern  states  at  the  time  of  the 
war  of  independence.  Had  no  other  form  of  servitude  been 
known  in  Virginia  than  such  as  had  been  tolerated  in 
Europe,  every  difficulty  would  have  been  promptly  obviated 
by  the  benevolent  spirit  of  colonial  legislation.  But  a  new 
problem  in  the  history  of  man  was  now  to  be  solved.  For 
the  first  time,  the  Ethiopian  and  Caucasian  races  were  to 
meet  together  in  nearly  equal  numbers  beneath  a  temperate 
/one.  Who  could  foretell  the  issue  ?  The  negro  race,  from 
its  introduction,  was  regarded  with  disgust,  and  its  union 


140  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  V. 

with  the  whites  forbidden  under  ignominious  penalties. 
For  many  years  the  Dutch  were  principally  concerned  in 
the  slave-trade  in  the  market  of  Virginia ;  the  immediate 
demand  for  laborers  may,  in  part,  have  blinded  the  eyes  of 
the  planters  to  the  cumulative  evils  of  slavery,  though  the 
laws  of  the  colony,  at  a  very  early  period,  discouraged  its 
increase  by  a  special  tax  upon  female  slaves. 

If  Wyatt,  on  his  arrival  in  Virginia  in  1621,  found 
1G21'  the  evil  of  negro  slavery  engrafted  on  the  social  system, 
he  brought  with  him  the  memorable  ordinance,  on  which  the 
fabric  of  colonial  liberty  was  to  rest,  and  which  was  inter- 
preted by  his  instructions  in  a  manner  favorable  to  the 
independent  rights  of  the  colonists.  Justice  was  established 
on  the  basis  of  the  laws  of  England,  and  an  amnesty  of 
ancient  feuds  proclaimed.  As  Puritanism  had  appeared  in 
Virginia, "  needless  novelties  "  in  the  forms  of  worship  were 
now  prohibited.  The  order  to  search  for  minerals  betrays 
a  lingering  hope  of  finding  gold  ;  while  the  injunction  to 
promote  certain  kinds  of  manufactures  was  ineffectual, 
because  labor  could  otherwise  be  more  profitably  em- 
ployed. 

The  business  which  occupied  the  first  session  under 

Ifi21 

Nov.  &  the  written  constitution  related  chiefly  to  the  encour- 
)e"'  agement  of  domestic  industry.  The  culture  of  silk 
engaged  the  attention  of  the  assembly ;  but  silk-worms 
could  not  be  cared  for  where  every  comfort  of  household 
existence  required  to  be  created.  As  little  was  the  successful 
culture  of  the  vine  possible,  although  the  company  had 
repeatedly  sent  vine-dressers,  who  had  been  set  to  work 
under  the  terrors  of  martial  law,  and  whose  efforts  were 
continued  after  the  establishment  of  regular  government. 
It  is  a  law  of  nature  that,  in  a  new  country  under  the 
temperate  zone,  corn  and  cattle  will  be  raised  before  silk  or 
wine.  The  first  culture  of  cotton  in  the  United  States  de- 
serves commemoration.  In  1621,  the  seeds  were  planted  as 
an  experiment ;  and  their  "  plentiful  coming  up  "  was,  at 
that  early  day,  a  subject  of  interest  in  America  and  England. 
From  this  year,  too,  dates  the  sending  of  beehives  to  Virginia, 
and  of  skilful  workmen  to  extract  iron  from  the  ore.  At 


1622.        DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  LONDON  COMPANY.       141 

the  instance  of  George  Sandys,  five-and -twenty  shipwrights 
came  over  in  1G22. 

Nor  did  the  benevolence  of  the  company  neglect  to  establish 
places  of  education,  and  provide  for  the  support  of  religious 
worship.  The  bishop  of  London  collected  and  paid  a  thou- 
sand pounds  towards  a  university;  which,  like  the  several 
churches  of  the  colony,  was  liberally  endowed  with  domains, 
and  fostered  by  public  and  private  charity.  But  the  system 
of  obtaining  a  revenue  through  a  permanent  tenantry  could 
meet  with  no  success,  for  it  was  not  in  harmony  with  the 
condition  of  colonial  society. 

Between  the  Indians  and  the  English  there  had  been  1622. 
quarrels,  but  no  wars.  From  the  first  landing  of 
colonists  in  Virginia,  the  power  of  the  natives  was  despised ; 
their  strongest  weapons  were  such  arrows  as  they  could 
shape  without  the  use  of  iron,  such  hatchets  as  could  be 
made  from  stone ;  and  an  English  mastiff  seemed  to  them  a 
terrible  adversary.  Nor  were  their  numbers  considerable. 
"Within  sixty  miles  of  Jamestown,  it  is  computed,  there 
were  no  more  than  five  thousand  souls,  or  about  fifteen 
hundred  warriors.  The  territory  of  the  clans  which  listened 
to'Powhatan,  as  their  leader  or  their  conqueror,  compre- 
hended about  eight  thousand  square  miles,  thirty  tribes,  and 
twenty-four  hundred  warriors  ;  so  that  the  Indian  population 
amounted  to  about  one  inhabitant  to  a  square  mile.  The 
natives  dwelt  dispersed  in  hamlets,  with  from  forty  to  sixty 
in  each  company.  Few  places  had  more  than  two  hundred  ; 
and  many  had  less.  It  was  unusual  for  any  large  portion  of 
these  tribes  to  be  assembled  together.  A  tale  of  an  ambus- 
cade of  three  or  four  thousand  is  perhaps  an  error  for  three 
or  four  hundred ;  otherwise  it  is  an  extravagant  fiction. 
Smith  once  met  a  party,  that  was  boastfully  reported  to 
amount  to  seven  hundred ;  and,  so  complete  was  the  superi- 
ority conferred  by  the  use  of  fire-arms,  that  with  fifteen  men 
he  withstood  them  all.  The  savages  were  therefore  regarded 
with  contempt  or  compassion.  No  uniform  care  had  been 
taken  to  conciliate  their  good-will ;  although  their  condition 
had  been  improved  by  some  of  the  arts  of  civilized  life. 
When  Wyatt  arrived,  the  natives  expressed  a  fear  lest  his 


142  COLOKIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  V. 

intentions  should  be  hostile :  he  assured  them  of  his  wish 
to  preserve  inviolable  peace ;  and  the  emigrants  had  no  use 
for  fire-arms  except  against  a  deer  or  a  fowl.  Confidence  so 
far  increased,  that  the  old  law,  which  made  death  the  penalty 
for  teaching  the  Indians  to  use  a  musket,  was  forgotten  ; 
and  they  were  now  employed  as  fowlers  and  huntsmen. 
The  plantations  of  the  English  were  widely  extended,  in 
unsuspecting  confidence,  along  the  James  River  and  towards 
the  Potomac,  wherever  rich  grounds  invited  to  the  culture 
of  tobacco  ;  nor  were  solitary  places,  remote  from  neighbors, 
avoided,  since  there  would  there  be  less  competition  for  the 
ownership  of  the  soil. 

Powhatan,  the  father  of  Pocahontas,  remained,  after  the 
marriage  of  his  daughter,  the  friend  of  the  English.  He 
died  in  1618 ;  and  his  younger  brother  was  the  heir  to  his 
influence.  By  this  time  the  native  occupants  of  the  soil 
were  near  being  driven  "  to  seek  a  straunger  countrie  ; "  to 
preserve  their  ancient  dwelling-places,  it  seemed  to  them 
that  the  English  must  be  exterminated.  A  preconcerted 
surprise  was  planned  with  impenetrable  secrecy.  To  the 
very  last  hour  the  Indians  preserved  the  language  of  friend- 
ship :  they  borrowed  the  boats  of  the  English  to  attend 
their  own  assemblies ;  on  the  morning  of  their  uprising, 
they  were  in  the  houses  and  at  the  tables  of  those  whose 
death  they  were  plotting.  "  Sooner,"  said  they,  "  shall  the 
sky  fall,  than  peace  be  violated  on  our  part."  At 
Mar.  22.  length,  on  the  twenty-second  of  March,  1622,  at  mid- 
day, at  one  and  the  same  instant  of  time,  the  Indians 
fell  upon  an  unsuspecting  population,  which  was  scattered 
through  distant  villages,  extending  one  hundred  and  forty 
miles,  on  both  sides  of  the  river.  None  were  spared  :  chil- 
dren and  women,  as  well  as  men ;  the  missionary,  who  had 
cherished  the  natives  with  untiring  gentleness ;  the  benefac- 
tors, from  whom  they  had  received  daily  kindnesses,  —  all 
were  murdered  indiscriminately  and  with  every  aggravation 
of  cruelty.  The  savages  fell  upon  the  dead  bodies,  as  if  it 
had  been  possible  to  commit  on  them  a  fresh  murder. 

In  one  hour  three  hundred  and  forty-seven  persons  were 
cut  off.    Yet,  the  night  before  the  execution  of  the  conspir- 


1622.        DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  LONDON  COMPANY.        143 

acy,  it  had  been  revealed  by  a  converted  Indian  to  an 
Englishman  whom  he  wished  to  rescue ;  Jamestown  and 
the  nearest  settlements  were  prepared  against  an  attack ; 
the  savages,  as  timid  as  they  were  ferocious,  fled  with  pre- 
cipitation at  the  appearance  of  wakeful  resistance ;  and  the 
larger  part  of  the  colony  was  saved.  The  total  number  of 
the  emigrants  had  exceeded  four  thousand.  A  year  after  the 
massacre,  there  remained  two  thousand  five  hundred  men. 

The  immediate  consequences  of  this  massacre  were  dis- 
astrous. Public  works  were  abandoned  ;  and  the  settle- 
ments reduced  from  eighty  plantations  to  less  than  eight. 
Sickness  prevailed  among  the  dispirited  survivors,  who  were 
now  crowded  into  narrow  quarters  ;  some  even  returned  to 
their  mother  country.  But,  in  England,  the  news  awakened 
compassionate  interest  and  resolution  ;  and  the  blood  of  the 
victims  became  the  nurture  of  the  plantation.  Even  King 
James,  for  a  moment,  affected  a  sentiment  of  generosity; 
gave  from  the  Tower  of  London  arms,  which  had  been 
thrown  by  as  good  for  nothing  in  Europe ;  and  made  fair 
promises,  which  were  never  fulfilled.  The  city  of  London 
and  many  private  persons  displayed  an  honorable  liberality. 
The  London  company,  which  in  May,  1622,  had  elected 
Nicholas  Ferrar  to  be  Lord  Southampton's  deputy,  "  re- 
doubled their  courages ;  "  and  urged  the  Virginians  not  to 
change  their  abode,  nor  apply  all  their  thoughts  to  staple 
commodities,  but  "  to  embellish  the  Sparta  upon  which  they 
had  lighted."  While  they  bade  them  "  not  to  rely  upon  any 
thing  but  themselves,"  they  yet  promised  "  that  there  shotild 
not  be  left  any  meanes  unattempted  on  their  part ; "  and 
they  announced  their  purpose  of  sending,  before  the  next 
spring,  four  hundred  young  men  well  furnished  out  of  Eng- 
land and  "Wales  ;  and  that  private  undertakers  had  engaged 
to  take  over  many  hundreds  more.  As  to  the  Indians,  they 
wrote :  "  The  innocent  blood  of  so  many  Christians  doth 
in  justice  cry  out  for  revenge.  We  must  advise  you  to  root 
out  a  people  so  cursed,  at  least  to  the  removal  of  them  far 
from  you.  Wherefore,  as  they  have  merited,  let  them  have 
a  perpetual  war  without  peace  or  truce,  and  without  mercy 
too.  Put  in  execution  all  ways  and  means  for  their  destruc- 


144  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  V. 

tion,  not  omitting  to  reward  their  neighboring  enemies  upon 
the  bringing  in  of  their  heads." 

The  arrival  of  these  instructions  found  the  Virginians 
already  involved  in  a  war  of  extermination.  First  in  the 
field  was  George  Sandys,  the  colonial  treasurer,  who  headed 
two  expeditions ;  next,  Yeardley,  the  governor,  invaded  the 
towns  of  Opechancanough ;  Captain  Madison  entered  the 
Potomac.  There  were  in  the  colony  much  loss  and  much 
sorrow,  but  never  any  serious  apprehensions  of  discomfiture. 
The  midnight  surprise,  the  ambuscade  by  day,  might  be 
feared ;  the  Indians  promptly  fled  on  the  least  indications  of 
watchfulness  and  resistance.  Their  rights  of  property  were 
no  longer  much  respected  ;  their  open  fields  and  villages  were 
appropriated  by  the  laws  of  war.  But  they  proved  to  be 
"  an  enemy  not  suddenly  to  be  destroyed  with  the  sword, 
by  reason  of  their  swiftness  of  foot,  and  advantages  of  the 
wood,  to  which  upon  all  assaults  they  retired."  Pursuit 
would  have  been  vain  ;  they  could  not  be  destroyed,  except 

as  they  were  lulled  into  security,  and  induced  to  re- 
1623.  turn  to  their  old  homes.  In  July  of  the  following 

year,  the  inhabitants  of  the  several  settlements,  in 
parties,  under  commissioned  officers,  fell  upon  the  adjoining 
savages ;  and  a  law  of  the  general  assembly  commanded 

that  in  July  of  1624  the  attack  should  be  repeated. 
1630.  Six  years  later,  the  colonial  statute-book  proves  that 

ruthless  schemes  were  still  meditated ;  for  it  was  en- 
acted that  no  peace  should  be  concluded  with  the  Indians, 
—  a  law  which  remained  in  force  for  two  years. 
1623  Meantime,  a  change  was  preparing  in  the  relations 

of  the  colony  with  the  parent  state.  A  settlement 
had  been  made  ;  but  only  after  a  vast  expenditure  of  money 
and  a  great  sacrifice  of  human  life.  The  Earl  of  South- 
ampton and  his  friends  gave  their  services  freely,  having 
no  motive  but  the  advancement  of  the  plantation;  the 
adherents  of  the  former  treasurer,  among  whom  Argall  was 
conspicuous,  under  the  lead  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  con- 
stituted a  relentless  faction,  which  grew  more  and  more 
embittered  in  its  opposition.  As  the  shares  in  the  unpro- 
ductive stock  were  of  little  value,  the  contests  were  chiefly 


1623.        DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  LONDON  COMPANY.        145 

for  the  direction ;  and  were  not  so  much  the  wranglings  of 
disappointed  merchants  as  the  conflict  of  political  parties. 
The  meetings  of  the  company,  which  now  consisted  of  a 
thousand  adventurers,  of  whom  two  hundred  or  more  usually 
appeared  at  the  quarter  courts,  were  the  scenes  for  freedom 
of  debate,  where  the  patriots,  who  in  parliament  advocated 
the  cause  of  liberty,  triumphantly  opposed  the  decrees  of 
the  privy  council  on  subjects  connected  with  the  rights  of 
Virginia.  The  unsuccessful  party  in  the  company  naturally 
soiight  an  ally  in  the  king ;  it  could  hope  for  success  only 
by  establishing  the  supremacy  of  his  prerogative ;  and  he, 
on  his  part,  desired  to  recover  the  authority  of  which  he 
had  deprived  himself  by  a  charter  of  his  own  concession. 
Besides,  from  his  extravagant  ideas  of  monarchical  power, 
he  was  haunted  by  a  passion  to  wed  his  eldest  surviving  son 
to  a  princess  of  the  house  of  Spain  ;  and  therefore  courted 
the  favor  of  the  Spanish  monarch,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of 
an  English  colony.  Moreover,  Gondomar,  the  Spanish  en- 
voy, at  his  court  had  said  to  him  :  "  The  Virginia  courts  are 
but  a  seminary  to  a  seditious  parliament ; "  and  he  disliked 
everywhere  the  freedom  of  debate.  Unable  to  get  the  con- 
trol of  the  company  by  overawing  their  assemblies,  the  mon- 
arch resolved  upon  the  sequestration  of  the  patent ;  and  raised 
no  other  question  than  how  the  unjust  design  could  most 
plausibly  be  accomplished,  and  the  law  of  England  be  made 
the  successful  instrument  of  tyranny.  The  allegation  of 
grievances,  set  forth  by  the  court  faction  in  a  petition 
to  the  king,  was  fully  refuted  by  the  company,  and  the 
ground  of  discontent  was  answered  by  an  explana- 
tory declaration.  Yet  commissioners  were  appointed  May  9. 
to  engage  in  a  general  investigation  of  the  concerns 
of  the  corporation ;  the  records  were  seized,  the  deputy 
treasurer  imprisoned,  and  private  letters  from  Virginia  in- 
tercepted for  inspection.  Smith  was  particularly  examined ; 
his  honest  answers  exposed  the  defective  arrangements  of 
previous  years,  and  favored  the  cancelling  of  the  charter  as 
an  act  of  benevolence  to  the  colony. 

To  the  Virginia  quarter  court  held  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 
June  for  the  annual  election,  James  sent  a  very  short  letter, 

VOL.  I.  10 


146  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  V. 

t 

in  which  he  said :  "  Our  will  and  pleasure  is  that  you  do 
forbear  the  election  of  any  officers  until  to-morrow  fort- 
night at  the  soonest,  but  let  those  that  be  already  remain  as 
they  are  in  the  mean  time."  The  reading  of  the  letter  was 
followed  by  a  long  and  general  silence,  after  which  it  was 
voted  that  the  present  officers  should  be  continued  because, 
by  the  express  words  of  their  charter,  choice  could  be  made 
only  at  a  quarter  court. 

The  king,  enraged  at  the  company,  held  the  citing  of  their 
charter  as  a  mere  pretext  to  thwart  his  command ;  and  on 
the  last  day  of  July  the  attorney-general,  to  whom  the  con- 
duct of  the  company  was  referred,  gave  it  as  his  opinion 
that  the  king  might  justly  resume  the  government  of  Vir- 
ginia, and,  should  they  not  voluntarily  yield,  could  call  in 
their  patent,  by  legal  proceedings.  In  pursuance  of 
Oct.'  this  advice,  the  king,  in  October,  by  an  order  in  coun- 
cil, made  known  to  the  company  that  the  disasters  of 
Virginia  were  a  consequence  of  their  ill  government ;  that 
he  had  resolved,  by  a  new  charter,  to  reserve  to  himself 
the  appointment  of  the  officers  in  England,  a  negative  on 
appointments  in  Virginia,  and  the  supreme  control  of  all 
colonial  affairs.  Private  interests  were  to  be  sacredly  pre- 
served ;  and  all  grants  of  land  to  be  renewed  and  confirmed. 
Should  the  company  resist  the  change,  its  patent  would  be 
recalled.  This  was  in  substance  a  proposition  to  revert  to 
the  charter  originally  granted. 

Oct.  17.       '-rhe  OT&er  was  read  to  the  Virginia  company  in 
court  three  several  times;  after  the  reading,  for  a 
long  while  no  man  spoke   a  word.     They  then  desired  a 
month's  delay,  that  all  their  members  might  take  part  in 
the  final  decision.     The   privy  council   peremptorily  sum- 
moned them  to  appear  before  it  and  make  their  answer 
Oct.  20.  at  the  end  of  three  days ;  and,  at  the  expiration  of 
that  time,  the  surrender  of  the  charter  was  refused. 
There  had  been   only  nine   hands  for  delivering  up   the 
charters,  against  threescore.     In  reply  to  the  orders  of  the 
king,  they  made   answer  that  they  were  ignorant   of  the 
dangers  and  ruins  that  might  have  befallen   the   colony 
by  the  continuance  of  the  former  government.     They  do 


1G24.        DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  LONDON  COMPANY.       147 

not  accuse  any  that  have  swayed  it  since  Sir  Thomas 
Smythe ;  their  slavery  from  that  time  has  been  converted 
into  freedom.  They  desire  that  the  governors  sent  over 
may  not  have  absolute  authority,  but  be  restrained,  as 
hitherto,  by  the  council.  They  beg  they  may  retain  the 
liberty  of  their  general  assembly. 

But  the  decision  of  the  king  was  already  taken ; 
and,  on  the  twenty-fourth,  commissioners  were  ap-  octfat. 
pointed  to  proceed  to  Virginia,  and  inquire  into  the 
state  of  the  plantation.    John  Harvey  and  Samuel  Matthews, 
both  distinguished  in  the  annals   of  Virginia,  were  of  the 
number  of  the  committee. 

On  the  tenth  of  November,  a  writ  of  quo  war-  NOV.  10. 
ranto  was  issued  against  the  company.  At  the  next  NOT.  19. 
quarter  court,  the  adventurers,  seven  only  oppos- 
ing, confirmed  the  former  refusal  to  surrender  the  char- 
ter, and  made  preparations  for  defence.  For  that  pur- 
pose, their  papers  were  for  a  season  restored :  while  they 
were  once  more  in  the  hands  of  the  company,  or  perhaps 
before  they  were  seized,  certified  copies  were  made  of  them 
by  the  care  and  at  the  expense  of  Nicholas  Ferrar.  These 
copies,  having  been  purchased  by  a  Virginian,  were  con- 
sulted by  Stith,  and  gave  to  his  history  the  authority  of  an 
original  record.  They  are  now  in  the  library  of  congress. 

While  these  things  were  transacting  in  England, 
the  commissioners,  early  in  1624,  arrived  in  the  col-  1624. 
ony.  The  general  assembly  was  immediately  con- 
vened ;  and,  as  the  company  had  refuted  the  allegations  of 
King  James,  as  opposed  to  their  interests,  so  the  colonists 
replied  to  them,  as  contrary  to  their  honor  and  good  name. 
The  principal  prayer  was,  that  the  governors  might  not 
have  absolute  power ;  and  that  the  liberty  of  popular  assem- 
blies might  be  retained ;  "  for,"  say  they,  "  nothing  can  con- 
duce more  to  the  public  satisfaction  and  the  public  utility." 
In  support  of  this  solicitation,  an  agent  was  appointed  to 
repair  to  England  ;  and,  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  mis- 
sion, a  tax  of  four  pounds  of  the  best  tobacco  was  levied 
upon  every  male  who  was  above  sixteen  years  and  had  been 
in  the  colony  a  twelvemonth.  The  commissioner  unfortu- 


148  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  V. 

nately  died  on  his  passage  to  Europe.  The  colony  continued 
to  entreat  the  king  not  to  give  credit  to  the  declarations  in 
favor  of  the  truly  miserable  years  of  Sir  Thomas  Smythe's 
government ;  and  to  repel  the  imputations  on  that  of  South- 
ampton and  Ferrar  as  malicious. 

The  spirit  of  liberty  had  planted  itself  deeply  among  the 
Virginians.  It  had  been  easier  to  root  out  the  staple  prod- 
uce of  their  plantations  than  to  wrest  from  them  their  es- 
tablished franchises.  The  movements  of  their  government 
display  the  spirit  of  the  place  and  the  aptitude  of  an  English 
colony  for  liberty.  A  faithless  clerk,  who  had  been  suborned 
by  one  of  the  commissioners  to  betray  their  secret  consulta- 
tions, was  promptly  punished.  In  vain  was  it  attempted, 
by  means  of  intimidation  and  promises  of  royal  favor,  to 
obtain  a  petition  for  the  revocation  of  the  charter.  It  was 
under  that  charter  that  the  assembly  was  itself  convened ; 
and,  after  prudently  rejecting  a  proposition  which  might 
have  endangered  its  own  existence,  it  proceeded  to  memo- 
rable acts  of  independent  legislation. 

The  rights  of  property  were  strictly  maintained  against 
arbitrary  taxation.  "  The  governor  shall  not  lay  any  taxes 
or  ympositions  upon  the  colony,  their  lands  or  commodities, 
other  way  than  by  the  authority  of  the  general  assembly,  to 
be  levyed  and  ymployed  as  the  said  assembly  shall  appoynt." 
Thus  Virginia,  the  oldest  colony,  was  the  first  to  set  the 
example  of  a  just  and  firm  legislation  on  the  management 
of  the  public  money.  The  rights  of  personal  liberty  were 
likewise  asserted,  and  the  power  of  the  executive  circum- 
scribed. The  several  governors  had  in  vain  attempted,  by 
penal  statutes,  to  promote  the  culture  of  corn;  the  true 
remedy  was  now  discovered  by  the  colonial  legislature. 
"  For  the  encouragement  of  men  to  plant  store  of  corn,  the 
•price  shall  not  be  stinted,  but  it  shall  be  free  for  every  man 
to  sell  it  as  deare  as  he  can."  The  reports  of  controversies 
in  England  rendered  it  necessary  to  provide  for  the  public 
tranquillity  by  an  express  enactment  "  that  no  person  within 
the  colony,  upon  the  rumor  of  supposed  change  and  altera- 
tion, presume  to  be  disobedient  to  the  present  government." 
These  laws,  so  judiciously  framed,  show  how  readily,  with 


1624.        DISSOLUTION  OF  THE  LONDON   COMPANY.        149 

the  aid  of  free  discussion,  men  become  good  legislators  on 
their  own  concerns ;  for  wise  legislation  is  the  enacting  of 
proper  laws  at  proper  times ;  and  no  criterion  is  so  nearly 
infallible  as  the  fair  representation  of  the  interests  to  be 
affected. 

While  the  commissioners  were  urging  the  Virginians  to 
renounce  their  right  to  the  privileges  which  they  exercised 
so  well,  the  English  parliament  was  in  session ;  and  a 
gleam  of  hope  revived  in  the  company,  as  in  April  Fer-  1624. 
rar  presented  their  elaborate  petition  for  redress  to 
the  grand  inquest  of  the  kingdom.  The  house  of  commons 
took  up  the  business  reluctantly;  but,  its  iniquity  being 
fully  proved,  they  appointed  Wednesday,  the  twenty-eighth 
of  April,  a  day  for  its  consideration.  But  on  that  day,  before 
any  progress  was  made,  there  came  a  letter  from  the  king : 
"  That  he  both  already  had,  and  would  also  hereafter  take  the 
affair  of  the  Virginia  company  into  his  own  most  serious  con- 
sideration and  care  ;  and  that,  by  the  next  parliament,  they 
should  all  see  he  would  make  it  one  of  his  masterpieces,  as 
it  well  deserved  to  be."  The  house  assented  by  a  general 
silence,  "  but  not  without  soft  muttering  that  any  other 
business  might  in  the  same  way  be  taken  out  of  the  hands  of 
parliament." 

Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  ever  intent  on  the  welfare  of  Virginia, 
was  able  to  secure  for  the  colonial  staple  complete  protection 
ngainst  foreign  tobacco,  by  a  petition  of  grace  from  the  com- 
mons, which  was  followed  by  a  royal  proclamation.  The 
people  of  England  could  not  have  given  a  more  earnest 
proof  of  their  disposition  to  foster  the  plantations  in  Amer- 
ica, than  by  restraining  all  competition  in  their  own  market 
for  the  benefit  of  the  American  planter. 

The  decree,  which  was  to  be  pronounced  by  judges  who 
held  their  office  by  the  tenure  of  the  royal  pleasure, 
could  not  remain  doubtful.   On  the  sixteenth  of  June,  June  16. 
1624,  the  last  day  of  the  Trinity  term,  judgment  was 
given  against  the  treasurer  and  company,  and  the  patents 
were  cancelled. 

Thus  the  company  was  dissolved,  but  not  till  it  had  ful- 
filled its  hisrh  destinies.  It  had  confirmed  the  colonization 


150  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CRAP.  V. 

of  Virginia,  and  had  conceded  irrevocably  a  liberal  form  of 
government  to  Englishmen  in  America.  It  could  accom- 
plish no  more.  The  members  were  probably  willing  to 
escape  from  an  enterprise  which  promised,  no  emolument, 
was  attended  by  unprofitable  strife,  and  had  maintained  but 
a  sickly  and  precarious  existence. 

Meantime,  the  commissioners  arrived  from  the  colony, 
and  made  their  report  to  the  king.  They  enumerated  the 
disasters  which  had  befallen  the  infant  settlement:  they 
eulogized  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  salubrity  of  the 
climate :  they  held  up  the  plantations  as  of  great  national 
importance,  and  an  honorable  monument  of  the  reign  of 
King  James ;  and  they  expressed  a  preference  for  the  origi- 
nal constitution  of  1606.  Supported  by  their  advice,  the 
king  resolved  himself  to  ~  take  care  for  the  government  of 
the  country."'  In  its  domestic  government  and  franchises 
no  immediate  change  was  made.  Sir  Francis  TVyatt,  though 

he  had  been  an  ardent  friend  of  the  London  company, 
jS^n.  was  confirmed  in  office ;  and  he  and  his  council,  far 

from  being  rendered  absolute,  were  only  empowered 
to  govern  u  as  fully  and  amplye  as  any  governor  and  council 
resident  there,  at  any  time  within  the  space  of  five  years 
now  last  past."  This  term  of  five  years  was  precisely  the 
period  of  representative  government ;  and  the  limitation 
formally  sanctioned  the  continuance  of  popular  assemblies. 
The  khig,  in  appointing  the  council  in  Virginia,  refused  to 
nominate  the  embittered  partisans  of  the  court  faction,  and 

formed  the  administration  on  the  principles  of  accom- 
^J?jr.  modation.  But  death  prevented  the  royal  legislator 

from  attempting  the  task  of  preparing  for  the  colony 
a  code  of  fundamental  laws. 


RESTRICTIONS  ON  COLONIAL   COMMERCE.         151 


CHAPTER  VI. 

RESTRICTIONS    ON   COLONIAL   COMMERCE. 

ASCENDING  the  throne  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  1625 
Charles  I.  inherited  the  principles  and  was  governed  Mar- 27< 
by  the  favorite  of  his  father.  The  rejoicings  in  consequence 
of  his  recent  nuptials  with  a  Bourbon  princess,  and  prepara- 
tions for  a  parliament,  left  him  little  leisure  for  American 
affairs.  Virginia  was  esteemed  by  the  monarch  as  the  coun- 
try producing  tobacco,  and  prized  according  to  the  revenue 
derived  from  that  staple.  As  a  royal  province,  it  became  an 
object  of  favor ;  and,  as  it  enforced  conformity  to  the  church 
of  England,  it  could  not  be  an  object  of  suspicion  to  the 
clergy.  The  new  king  felt  an  earnest  desire  to  heal  old 
grievances,  to  secure  the  personal  rights  and  property  of  the 
colonists,  and  to  promote  their  prosperity.  Franchises  were 
neither  conceded  nor  restricted ;  for  it  did  not  occur  to  his 
pride  that,  at  that  time,  established  privileges  and  vigorous 
political  life  were  already  germinating  on  the  borders  of 
the  Chesapeake.  His  first  Virginia  measure  was  a 
proclamation  on  tobacco,  issued  on  the  ninth  of  April,  April  9. 
1625,  within  a  fortnight  of  his  accession ;  it  confirmed 
to  Virginia  and  the  Somer  Isles  the  exclusive  supply  of  the 
British  market,  under  penalty  of  the  censure  of  the 
star-chamber  for  disobedience.  In  a  few  days,  a  new  May  is. 
proclamation  appeared,  in  which,  after  a  careful 
declaration  of  the  forfeiture  of  the  charters,  and  conse- 
quently of  the  immediate  dependence  of  Virginia  upon 
himself,  —  a  declaration  aimed  against  the  claims  of  the 
London  company,  and  not  against  the  franchises  of  the 
colonists,  —  the  monarch  announced  his  fixed  resolution  of 
becoming,  through  his  agents,  the  sole  factor  of  the  planters. 


152  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI. 

Indifferent  to  their  constitution,  it  was  his  principal  aim  to 
monopolize  the  profits  of  their  industry ;  and  the  political 
rights  of  Virginia  were  established  as  usages  by  his  neglect. 
When,  early  in  1626,  Wyatt  retired,  the  reappoint- 
ment  of  Sir  George  Yeardley  was  in  itself  a  guarantee 
that,  as  "  the  former  interests  of  Virginia  were  to  be  kept 
inviolate,"  so  the  representative  government  would  be  main- 
tained ;  for  it  was  Yeardley  who  had  introduced  the 
Mar.  4.    system.     In  his  commission,  in  which  William  Clay- 
borne,  described  as  "  a  person  of  quality  and  trust," 
is  named  as  secretary,  the  monarch  expressed  his  desire  to 
encourage  and  perfect  the  plantation  ;  "  the  same  means  that 
were  formerly  thought  fit  for  the  maintenance  of  the  colony  " 
were  continued ;  and  the  power  of  the  governor  and  council 
was  limited,  as  it  had  before  been  done  in  the  commission  of 
Wyatt,  by  a  reference  to  the  usages  of  the  last  five  years. 
In  that  period,  representative  liberty  had  become  the  custom 
of  Virginia.     The  words  were  interpreted  as  favoring  the 
wishes  of  the  colonists ;  and  King  Charles,  intent  only  on 
increasing  his  revenue,  confirmed  the  existence  of  a  popular 
assembly.     Virginia  rose  rapidly  in  public  esteem , 
162T.       in  1627,  a  thousand  emigrants  arrived ;  and  there  was 

an  increasing  demand  for  the  products  of  its  soil. 
Nov.  In  November,  1627,  the  career  of  Yeardley  was 

closed  by  death.     Posterity  retains  a  grateful  recol- 
lection of  the  man  who  first  convened  a  representative  as- 
sembly in  the  western  hemisphere  ;  the  colonists,  in  a  letter 
to  the  privy  council,  gave  a  eulogy  on  his  virtues. 
Nov.  14.  The  day  after  his  burial,  and  in  the  absence  of  John 
Harvey,  who  was  named  in  Yeardley's  commission  as 
his  eventual  successor,  Francis  West  was  elected  governor ; 
for  the  council  was  authorized  to  elect  the  governor,  "  from 
time  to  time,  as  often  as  the  case  should  require." 
Au    24       In  August  of  that  year,  the  king,  by  a  letter  of 
'  instructions  to  the  governor  and  council,  offered  to 
contract  for  the  whole  crop  of  tobacco  ;  desiring,  at  the  same 
time,  that  an  assembly  might  be  convened  to  consider 
nXi.  his  proposal.     In  the  fallowing  March,  the  assembly, 
in  its  reply,  which  was  signed  by  the  governor,  by  five 


1630.        RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL  COMMERCE.         153 

members  of  the  council,  and  by  thirty-one  burgesses,  acqui- 
esced in  the  royal  monopoly,  but  protested  against  its  being 
farmed  out  to  individuals.  The  Virginians,  happier  than 
the  people  of  England,  enjoyed  a  faithful  representative 
government ;  and,  through  resident  planters  who  composed 
the  council,  they  repeatedly  made  choice  of  their  own  gov- 
ernor. When  West  designed  to  embark  for  Europe,  his 
place  was  supplied  by  the  election  of  John  Pott,  the  best 
surgeon  and  physician  in  the  colony. 

No  sooner  had  the  news  of  the  death  of  Yeardley  reached 
England  than  the  king  issued  a  new  commission  to  Harvey 
as  governor,  and  Clayborne  was  confirmed  as  secretary. 
The  instrument,  while  it  renewed  the  limitations  which  had 
previously  been  set  to  the  executive  authority,  permitted  the 
governor  to  supply  all  vacancies  occurring  in  the  council  in 
Virginia,  subject  to  approval. 

In  the  interval  between  the  appointment  of  Harvey 
and  his  return  to  America,  Lord  Baltimore  visited       1629. 
Virginia.     Its  government  pursued  him  as  a  Roman- 
ist, and  would  not  suffer  him  to  plant  within  its  jurisdiction. 
On  the   other  hand,  the   people   of  New   Plymouth  were 
invited  to  abandon  their  cold  and  sterile  abode,  and  plant 
themselves  in  the  milder  regions  on  the  Delaware  Bay ;  a 
plain  indication  that  Puritans  were  not  as  yet  molested  by 
Virginia. 

It  was  very  late  in  the  year  of  1629  when  Harvey  ar- 
rived in  Virginia.  He  met  his  first  assembly  of  bur- 
gesses in  the  following  March,  a  week  before  Easter.  M^°24. 
He  had  for  several  years  been  a  member  of  the 
council ;  and  had  been  a  willing  instrument  in  the  hands 
of  the  faction  to  which  Virginia  ascribed  its  earliest  griefs, 
and  which  it  justly  continued  to  regard  with  a  deep-rooted 
aversion.  As  his  first  appearance  in  America,  in  1624,  had 
been  with  no  friendly  designs,  so  now  he  was  the  support 
of  those  who  desired  large  grants  of  land  and  concessions 
of  separate  jurisdictions ;  and  he  preferred  the  interests  of 
himself,  his  partisans,  and  patrons,  especially  Lord  Balti- 
more, to  the  welfare  of  the  colony.  Moreover,  he  held  a 
warrant  to  receive  for  himself  all  fines  arising  by  any  sen- 


154  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI. 

tence  of  its  courts  of  justice.  In  every  department  of  his 
proceedings  he  was  rough  and  passionate,  pronouncing  hasty 
judgments  and  quarrelling  with  all  the  council ;  yet,  while 
arbitrary  power  was  rapidly  advancing  to  triumph  in  England, 
the  Virginians  uninterruptedly  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  inde- 
pendent legislation ;  through  the  agency  of  their  represent- 
atives, they  levied  and  appropriated  taxes,  secured  the  free 
industry  of  their  citizens,  guarded  the  forts  with  their  own 
soldiers,  at  their  own  charge,  and  gave  publicity  to  their 
statutes.  When  the  defects  and  inconveniences  of  infant 
legislation  were  remedied  by  a  revised  code,  which  was 
published  with  the  approbation  of  the  governor  and  council, 
the  privileges  which  the  assembly  had  ever  claimed  were 
confirmed.  Indeed,  they  had  not  been  questioned.  The 
governor  had  indeed  advised,  that  he  should  have,  for  the 
time  being,  a  negative  voice  on  all  acts  of  legislation ;  and 
the  government,  in  its  reply,  had  suggested  that  the  laws 
made  in  Virginia  should  stand  only  as  propositions  until 
the  king  should  ratify  them  under  his  great  seal ;  but  the 
limitation  was  not  introduced  into  his  commission.  De 
Vries,  who  visited  Virginia  in  1632-3,  had  reason  to  praise 
the  advanced  condition  of  the  settlement,  the  abundance  of 
its  products,  and  the  liberality  of  its  government. 

The  community  was  nevertheless  disturbed  because  fines 
were  rashly  imposed,  and  were  exacted  with  too 
1635.  relentless  rigor.  In  1635,  the  discontent  of  Virginia, 
at  the  dismemberment  of  its  territory  by  the  cession 
of  a  province  to  Lord  Baltimore,  was  at  its  height.  While 
Clayborne,  who  had  been  superseded  as  secretary,  resisted 
the  jurisdiction  of  Maryland  over  Kent  Island  and  over 
trade  in  the  Chesapeake,  Harvey  courted  the  favor  of  Balti- 
more. The  colonists  were  fired  with  indignation  that  their 
governor,  who  was  hateful  to  them,  for  his  self-will  and 
violent  exercise  of  power,  should,  as  it  seemed  to  them, 
betray  their  territorial  interests. 

In  the  latter  part  of  April,  a  multitude  of  people,  among 
whom  was  the  sheriff  of  York,  assembled  in  that  place  at 
the  house  of  William  Barrene,  who  was  the  chief  speaker 
at  the  meeting.  Francis  Pott  read  a  petition  written  by 


1630.        RESTRICTIONS   ON  COLONIAL   COMMERCE.         155 

his  brother,  tbe  governor  by  election  whom  Harvey  had 
superseded,  and  subscribed  by  many  from  other  parts  of 
the  country,  complaining  of  a  tax  imposed  by  Harvey,  of 
the  want  of  justice  in  his  administration,  and  of  his  unad- 
vised and  dangerous  dealings  with  the  Indians.  For  this 
act  the  governor  ordered  the  sheriff,  Francis  Pott,  and 
another  to  be  apprehended,  and  called  a  council  to  come 
to  his  assistance  in  suppressing  these  mutinous  gatherings. 
But,  on  the  twenty-eighth,  Matthews  and  other  members  of 
the  council  came  to  his  house,  armed,  and  attended  by  fifty 
musketeers.  John  Utie,  a  councillor,  struck  him  on  the 
shoulder,  and  said :  "  I  arrest  you  for  treason  ; "  which  con- 
sisted, as  they  said,  in  going  about  to  betray  their  forts  into 
the  hands  of  their  enemies  of  Maryland.  The  musketeers 
were  ordered  to  draw  back  until  there  should  be  use  for 
them ;  and  guards  were  stationed  in  all  the  approaches  to 
the  house.  The  three  prisoners  were  set  at  liberty.  The 
petition  against  the  governor  was  produced,  and  made  the 
pretext  for  calling  for  an  assembly ;  by  which,  as  a  proclama- 
tion announced,  complaints  against  the  governor  would  be 
heard.  The  old  planter  Matthews,  a  man  of  quick  temper, 
whom  Harvey  had  opposed  at  the  board  with  exceeding 
animosity,  informed  him  that  the  fury  against  him  could  not 
be  appeased.  He  attempted  to  make  terms  with  the  council ; 
but  they  would  yield  to  none  of  his  conditions,  and  chose 
in  his  place  John  West,  who  immediately  assumed  the  gov- 
ernment. Harvey  finally  consented  to  go  to  England,  and 
there  make  answer  to  their  complaints.  He  professed  to 
fear  "  that  the  mutineers  intended  no  less  than  the  subver- 
sion of  Maryland." 

On  the  eleventh  of  December,  the  cause  of  Sir  John  Har- 
vey was  investigated  by  the  privy  council,  the  king  himself 
presiding.  "  To  send  hither  the  governor,"  said  Charles, 
"  was  an  assumption  of  the  regal  power ;  it  is  necessary  to 
send  him  back,  though  to  stay  but  a  day ;  if  he  can  clear 
himself,  he  shall  remain  longer  than  he  otherwise  would  have 
done."  The  commissioners  appointed  by  the  council  of  Vir- 
ginia to  present  their  complaints  had  not  arrived.  In  their 
absence,  Harvey  pleaded  that  there  was  no  particular  charge 


COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VL 

* 

against  him.  It  appeared  that  he  had  assumed  power  to 
place  and  displace  members  of  the  council,  and  that  under 
the  provocation  of  ill  language  he  had  struck  one  of  them 
and  sequestered  another.  But  he  denied  that  he  had  unduly 
favored  trade  with  the  Dutch,  or  that  he  had  countenanced 
the  popish  religion  in  Maryland ;  and  he  even  denied  that 
mass  was  publicly  said  in  that  province. 

A  few  days  later,  in  accordance  with  the  request  of  Lord 
Baltimore,  Harvey  received  a  new  commission,  which  lim- 
ited his  powers  as  before  to  such  as  had  been  exercised  dur- 
ing the  period  of  legislative  freedom ;  but  reserved  the 
appointments  to  vacancies  in  the  council  to  the  government 
in  England.  In  consequence  of  the  unseaworthiness  of  the 
king's  ship  in  which  he  was  to  have  sailed,  he  did  not  reach 
Virginia  until  January,  1637,  after  an  absence  of  more  than 
a  year  and  a  half.  Without  delay,  he  met  the  council  at  the 
church  of  Elizabeth  City ;  published  the  king's  proclamation, 
pardoning,  with  a  few  exceptions,  all  persons  who  had  given 
aid  in  the  late  practices  against  him;  and  summoned  an 
assembly  for  the  following  February.  During  the  period 
of  his  office,  the  accustomed  legislative  rights  of  the  colony 
were  not  impaired. 

1639.  In   November,  1639,   he   was   superseded  by  Sir 

Nov.  Francis  Wyatt,  who,  in  the  following  January,  con- 
vened a  general  assembly.  History  has  recorded 
many  instances  where  a  legislature  has  altered  the 
scale  of  debts  by  debasing  the  coin,  or  by  introducing  paper 
money.  In  Virginia,  debts  had  been  contracted  to  be  paid 
in  tobacco ;  and  when  the  article  rose  in  value,  in  conse- 
quence of  laws  restricting  its  culture,  the  legislature  did  not 
scruple  to  enact  that  "  no  man  need  pay  more  than  two 
thirds  of  his  debt  during  the  stint ; "  and  that  all  creditors 
should  take  "  forty  pounds  for  a  hundred."  Beyond  this, 
the  second  administration  of  Wyatt  passed  silently  away. 

After  two  years,  Sir  William  Berkeley  was  consti- 

AugVa.   tute<l  governor.     The  members  of  his  council  were 

to  take  part  with  him  in  supplying  vacancies  in  that 

body.      His  instructions  enjoined  him  to  be  careful  that 

God  should  be  served  after  the  form  established  in  the 


1640. 
Jan. 


1642.        RESTRICTIONS   ON  COLONIAL  COMMERCE.         157 

church  of  England,  and  not  to  suffer  any  innovation  in 
matters  of  religion.  Each  congregation  was  to  provide  for 
its  own  minister.  The  oaths  of  supremacy  and  allegiance 
were  to  be  tendered  to  residents,  and  recusants  "  to  be  sent 
home."  Justice  was  to  be  administered  according  to  the 
laws  of  England.  Besides  the  quarter  courts,  inferior  courts 
were  to  be  established  for  minor  suits  and  offences ;  and  pro- 
bate of  wills  was  provided  for.  All  men  above  sixteen  years 
were  to  bear  arms.  Trade  with  the  savages  without  special 
license  was  forbidden.  To  every  person  who  had  emigrated 
since  midsummer,  1625,  a  patent  for  fifty  acres  of  land  was 
ordered.  The  general  assembly  was  to  meet  annually,  the 
governor  having  a  negative  voice  on  its  acts.  "With  the 
consent  of  the  assembly,  the  residence  of  the  government 
might  be  removed  to  a  more  healthful  place,  which  should 
take  the  old  name  of  Jamestown.  One  of  the  instructions 
imposed  by  the  prerogative  most  severe  and  unwarrantable 
restrictions  on  the  liberty  of  trade,  of  which  the  nature  will 
presently  be  explained. 

It  was  in  February,  1642,  that  Sir  William  Berke-  1642. 
ley  assumed  the  government.  He  summoned  imme-  March, 
diately  the  colonial  legislature.  IA  a  former  year, 
the  court  had  refused  to  renew  a  corporation  for  Virginia, 
because,  it  was  said,  "  they  will  endeavor  to  poyson  that 
plantation  with  factious  spirits  and  such  as  are  refractory 
to  monarchical  government,  as  all  corporations  are."  Now 
the  utmost  harmony  prevailed;  the  memory  of  factions 
was  lost  in  a  general  amnesty  of  ancient  griefs.  The  lapse 
of  years  had  so  far  effaced  the  divisions  which  grew  out  of 
the  dissolution  of  the  company,  that  when  George  Sandys 
presented  a  petition  to  the  commons,  praying  for  the  res- 
toration of  the  ancient  patents,  the  royalist  assembly  disa- 
vowed the  design,  and,  after  a  full  debate,  opposed  it 
by  a  protest.  The  document  breathes  the  tone  of  a  Ap-m. 
body  accustomed  to  public  discussion  and  the  inde- 
pendent exercise  of  legislative  power.  They  assert  the 
necessity  of  the  freedom  of  trade ;  "  for  freedom  of  trade," 
say  they,  "is  the  blood  and  life  of  a  commonwealth." 
And  they  defended  their  preference  of  self-governmeD.t 


158  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI. 

through  a  colonial  legislature,  by  a  conclusive  argument: 
"  There  is  more  likelyhood  that  such  as  are  acquainted  with 
the  clime  and  its  accidents  may  upon  better  grounds  pre- 
scribe our  advantages,  than  such  as  shall  sit  at  the  helm  in 
England."  The  king  in  reply  declared  his  purpose  not  to 
change  a  form  of  government  in  which  they  "  received  so 
much  content  and  satisfaction." 

The  Virginians,  aided  by  Sir  William  Berkeley,  could 
now  deliberately  perfect  their  civil  condition.  Condemna- 
tions to  service  had  been  a  usual  punishment ;  these  were 
abolished.  In  the  courts  of  justice,  a  near  approach  was 
made  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  England.  Religion  was 
provided  for;  the  law  about  land-titles  adjusted;  an  ami- 
cable treaty  with  Maryland  matured ;  and  peace  with  the 
Indians  confirmed.  Taxes  were  assessed,  not  in  proportion 
to  numbers,  but  to  men's  abilities  and  estates.  The  spirit  of 
liberty,  which  moved  in  the  English  parliament,  belonged 
equally  to  the  colony ;  and  the  rights  of  property,  the  free- 
dom of  industry,  the  exercise  of  civil  franchises,  seemed  to 
be  secured  to  themselves  and  their  posterity.  "  A  future 
immunity  from  taxes  and  impositions,"  except  such  as  should 
be  freely  voted  for  their  own  wants,  "  was  expected  as  the 
fruits  of  the  endeavors  of  their  legislature."  The  restraints 
with  which  their  navigation  was  threatened  were  not  en- 
forced ;  and  Virginia  enjoyed  nearly  all  the  liberties  which 
a  monarch  could  concede,  and  retain  his  supremacy. 

The  triumph  of  the  popular  party  in  England  did  not 
alter  the  condition  or  the  affections  of  the  Virginians.  The 
commissioners  appointed  by  parliament  in  November, 
Nov.  2.  1643,  with  full  authority  over  the  plantations,  among 
whom  are  the  names  of  Haselrig,  Henry  Vane,  Pym, 
and  Cromwell,  promised,  indeed,  freedom  from  English  tax- 
ation ;  but  this  immunity  was  already  enjoyed.  They  gave 
the  colony  liberty  to  choose  its  own  governor ;  but  it  had 
no  dislike  to  Berkeley ;  and  though  there  was  a  party  for 
the  parliament,  yet  the  king's  authority,  which  Charles  had 
ever  mildly  exercised,  was  maintained. 

The  condition  of  contending  factions  in  England  had 
brought  the  opportunity  of  legislation  independent 


1643.        RESTRICTIONS   ON  COLONIAL  COMMERCE.         159 

of  European  control ;  and  the  act  of  the  assembly,  restrain- 
ing religious  liberty,  proves  the  attachment  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  Virginia  to  the  Episcopal  Church  and  to  royalty. 
"  Here,"  the  tolerant  Whitaker  had  -written,  "  neither  sur- 
plice nor  subscription  is  spoken  of ; "  and  many  Puritan 
families,  perhaps  some  even  of  the  Puritan  clergy,  had 
planted  themselves  within  the  jurisdiction  of  Virginia.  The 
honor  of  Laud  had  been  vindicated  by  a  judicial  sentence, 
and  south  of  the  Potomac  the  decrees  of  the  court  of  high 
commission  were  allowed  to  be  valid ;  but  I  find  no  trace  of 
persecutions  in  the  earliest  history  of  the  colony.  The  laws 
were  harsh :  the  administration  seems  to  have  been  mild. 
A  disposition  to  non-conformity  was  soon  to  show  itself  even 
in  the  council.  An  invitation,  which  had  been  sent  to  Bos- 
ton for  Puritan  ministers,  implies  a  belief  that  they  would 
have  been  admitted.  But  the  democratic  revolution  in 
England  had  given  an  immediate  political  importance  to 
religious  sects :  to  tolerate  Puritanism  was  to  nurse  a  re- 
publican party.  It  was,  therefore,  specially  ordered  that 
no  minister  should  preach  or  teach,  publicly  or  privately, 
except  in  conformity  to  the  constitutions  of  the  church  of 
England,  and  non-conformists  were  banished.  It  was  in 
vain  that  the  ministers,  invited  from  Boston  by  the  Puritan 
settlements  in  Virginia,  carried  letters  from  Winthrop, 
written  to  Berkeley  and  his  council  by  order  of  the  general 
court  of  Massachusetts.  "The  hearts  of  the  people  were 
much  inflamed  with  desire  after  the  ordinances ; "  but  the 
missionaries  were  silenced  by  the  government,  and  ordered 
to  leave  the  country.  Sir  William  Berkeley  was  "  a  courtier, 
and  very  malignant  towards  the  way  of  the  churches  "  in 
New  England. 

While  Virginia  thus  displayed  intolerance,  the  natives 
were  once  more  provoked  to  acts  of  vindictive  ferocity. 
In  1643,  it  was  enacted  by  the  assembly  that  no  terms  of 
peace  should  be  entertained  with  the  Indians ;  whom  it  was 
usual  to  distress  by  sudden   marches  against   their 
settlements.     But   they  heard  of  the  dissensions  in       1644. 
England,  and,  taking  counsel  only  of  their  passions, 
they  resolved  on  one  more  attempt  at  a  general  massacre. 


160  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI. 

On  the  eighteenth  day  of  April,  1644,  the  time  appointed 
for  the  carnage,  they  began  the  unexpected  onset  upon  the 
frontier  settlements.  But  hardly  had  they  steeped  their 
hands  in  blood,  before  they  were  dismayed  by  the  recollec- 
tion of  their  own  comparative  weakness;  and,  trembling 
for  the  consequences  of  their  treachery,  they  fled  to  distant 
woods.  The  number  of  victims  was  three  hundred.  Vig- 
orous measures  were  promptly  taken  by  the  English  for 
protection  and  defence. 

So  little  was  apprehended,  when  the  English  were  on 
their  guard,  that,  two  months  after  the  massacre,  Berkeley 
embarked  for  England,  leaving  Richard  Kemp  as  his  sub- 
stitute. A  border  warfare  continued ;  marches  up  and  down 
the  Indian  country  were  ordered ;  yet,  so  weak  were  the 
natives,  that  though  the  careless  traveller  and  the  straggling 
huntsman  were  long  in  danger  of  being  intercepted,  ten 
men  were  considered  a  sufficient  force  to  protect  a  place  of 
danger. 

In  1646  the  aged  Opechancanough  was  taken ;  and  the 
venerated  monarch  of  the  sons  of  the  forest,  so  long  the 
undisputed  lord  of  almost  boundless  hunting-grounds,  died 
in  miserable  captivity,  of  wounds  inflicted  by  a  brutal  soldier. 
In  his  last  moments,  he  chiefly  regretted  his  exposure  to  the 
contemptuous  gaze  of  his  enemies. 

1646.  About  fifteen  months  after  Berkeley's  return  from 

Oct-  England,  articles  of  peace  were  established  between 
the  inhabitants  of  Virginia  and  Necotowance,  the  successor 
of  Opechancanough,  on  the  conditions  of  submission  and  a 
cession  of  lands.  The  original  possessors  of  the  soil  began 
to  vanish  away  from  the  neighborhood  of  the  English  settle- 
ments. Language,  composed  of  fleeting  sounds,  transmits 
the  remembrance  of  past  occurrences,  long  after  every 
other  monument  has  passed  away.  Of  the  labors  of  the 
Indians  on  the  soil  of  Virginia,  there  remains  nothing  so 
respectable  as  would  be  a  common  ditch  for  the  draining  of 
lands :  rivers  and  mountains  retain  the  names  which  were 
given  by  those  whose  tribes  have  become  extinct. 

Thus  the  colonists  acquired  the  management  of  all  their 
concerns ;  war  was  levied,  and  peace  concluded,  and  terri- 


1650.        RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL   COMMERCE.         161 

tory  acquired,  in  conformity  to  the  acts  of  their  own  repre- 
sentatives. Possessed  of  security  and  quiet,  abundance  of 
land,  a  free  market  for  their  staple,  and  having  England  for 
its  guardian  against  foreign  oppression,'  rather  than  its  ruler, 
the  colonists  enjoyed  all  the  prosperity  which  a  virgin  soil, 
equal  laws,  and  general  uniformity  of  condition  and  indus- 
try, could  bestow.  Their  numbers  increased ;  the  cottages 
were  filled  with  children,  the  ports  with  ships  and  emi- 
grants. At  Christmas,  1648,  there  were  trading  in  Vir- 
ginia ten  ships  from  London,  two  from  Bristol,  twelve  Hol- 
landers, and  seven  from  New  England.  The  number  of 
the  colonists  was  already  twenty  thousand ;  and  they  who 
had  sustained  no  griefs  were  not  tempted  to  engage  in  the 
feuds  which  rent  the  mother  country.  After  the  ex- 
ecution of  Charles,  though  there  were  not  wanting  1649. 
some  who  favored  republicanism,  the  government  re- 
cognised his  son  without  dispute.  The  disasters  of  the  royal- 
ists in  England  strengthened  their  party  in  the  New  World. 
Men  of  consideration  "  among  the  nobility,  gentry,  and 
clergy,"  struck  "  with  horror  and  despair  "  at  the  beheading 
of  Charles  I.,  and  desiring  no  reconciliation  with  unrelent- 
ing "  rebels,"  made  their  way  to  the  shores  of  the  Chesa- 
peake, where  every  house  was  for  them  a  "  hostelry,"  and 
every  planter  a  friend.  The  mansion  and  the  purse  of 
Berkeley  were  open  to  all ;  and,  at  the  hospitable  dwellings 
that  were  scattered  along  the  rivers  and  among  the  wilds  of 
Virginia,  the  Cavaliers,  exiles  like  their  monarch,  met  in 
frequent  groups  to  recount  their  toils,  to  sigh  over  defeats, 
and  to  nourish  loyalty  and  hope.  "  Virginia  was  whole  for 
monarchy,  and  the  last  country,  belonging  to  England,  that 
submitted  to  obedience  of  the  commonwealth." 

The  faithfulness  of  the  Virginians   did  not   escape   the 
attention   of  the  royal   exile ;   from   his    retreat   in 
Breda,  he  transmitted   to   Berkeley  a  new  commis-     j^ 
sion,  and  still  controlled  the  distribution   of  offices. 
But  the  parliament  did  not  long  permit  its  authority  to  be 
denied.      Having  triumphed  over  its  enemies   in   Europe, 
it  turned   its   attention   to   America;   a  memorable 
ordinance  empowered  the  council  of  state  to  reduce    Oct  a. 

VOL.  I.  11 


162  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VL 

the  rebellious  colonies  to  obedience,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
established  it  as  a  law,  that  foreign  ships  should  not  trade 
at  any  of  the  ports  "in  Barbadoes,  Antigua,  Bermudas, 
and  Virginia."  Maryland,  which  was  not  expressly  in- 
cluded in  the  ordinance,  had  taken  care  to  acknowledge 
the  new  order  of  things ;  and  Massachusetts,  alike  unwilling 
to  encounter  the  hostility  of  parliament,  and  jealous  of  the 
rights  of  independent  legislation,  by  its  own  enact- 
M^y'7  ment  prohibited  all  intercourse  with  Virginia,  till 
the  supremacy  of  the  commonwealth  should  be  estab- 
lished ;  although  the  order,  when  it  was  found  to  be 
Oct.  14.  injurious  to  commerce,  was  repealed,  even  whilst 
royalty  still  triumphed  at  Jamestown.  The  lovers 
of  monarchy  indulged  the  hope  that  the  victories  of  their 
friends  in  the  Chesapeake  would  redeem  the  disgrace  that 
had  elsewhere  fallen  on  the  royal  arms ;  many  partisans  of 
Charles  had  come  over  as  to  a  place  of  safety ;  and  the 
honest  Governor  Berkeley,  than  whom  "  no  man  meant  bet- 
ter," was  so  confirmed  in  his  confidence,  that  he  wrote  to 
the  king,  almost  inviting  him  to  America.  The  approach 
of  the  day  of  trial  was  watched  with  the  deepest  interest. 

But,  while  preparations  were  making  for  the  reduction  of 
the  loyal  colonies,  the  commercial  policy  of  England  under- 
went a  revision,  to  which  the  interests  of  English  merchants 
and  ship-builders  imparted  consistency  and  durability. 

It  is  the  ancient  fate  of  colonies  to  be  planted  by  the 
daring  of  the  poor  and  the  hardy ;  to  struggle  into  being 
through  the  severest  trials ;  to  be  neglected  by  the  parent 
country  during  the  season  of  poverty  and  weakness;  to 
thrive  by  the  unrestricted  application  of  their  powers  and 
enterprise  ;  and  by  their  consequent  prosperity  to  tempt 
oppression.  The  Greek  colonies  early  attained  opulence 
and  strength,  because  they  were  free ;  the  emigrants  were 
dismissed,  not  as  servants,  but  as  equals.  They  were  the 
natural  allies,  and  not  the  reluctant  subordinates,  of  the 
mother  country.  They  spoke  the  same  dialect,  revered 
the  same  gods,  cherished  the  same  customs  and  laws ;  but 
the  new  people  was  from  its  birth  politically  independent. 
Freedom,  stimulating  exertion,  invited  them  to  stretch 


CHAP.  VI.    RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL   COMMERCE.    163 

their  settlements  from  the  Euxine  to  the  western  Mediter- 
ranean, and  urged  them  forward  to  wealth  and  prosperity, 
commensurate  with  their  boldness  and  the  vast  extent  of 
their  domains.  The  colonies  of  Carthage,  on  the  contrary, 
had  no  sooner  attained  sufficient  consideration  to  merit 
attention,  than  the  mother  state  insisted  upon  a  monopoly 
of  their  commerce.  The  colonial  system  is  as  old  as  col- 
onies and  the  spirit  of  commercial  gain  and  political  op- 
pression. 

No  sooner  had  Spain  and  Portugal  entered  on  maritime 
discovery,  and  found  their  way  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  and  to  America,  than  a  monopoly  of  the  traffic  of  the 
world  was  desired.  Covetous  of  the  whole,  they  could  with 
difficulty  agree  upon  a  division,  not  of  a  conquered  province, 
the  banks  of  a  river,  a  neighboring  territory,  but  of  the 
oceans.  They  claimed  that,  on  the  larger  seas,  the  winds 
should  blow  only  to  fill  their  sails;  that  the  islands  and 
continents  of  Asia,  of  Africa,  and  the  New  World,  should 
freight  only  the  ships  of  their  merchants ;  and,  having 
denounced  the  severest  penalties  against  any  who  should 
infringe  the  rights  which  they  claimed,  they  obtained  the 
sanction  of  the  Roman  religion  to  adjust  their  differences, 
and  to  bar  competitors  by  the  pains  of  excommunication. 
The  moral  sense  of  mariners  revolted  at  the  extravagance : 
since  foi-feiture,  imprisonment,  and  the  threat  of  eternal  woe, 
were  to  follow  the  attempt  at  the  fair  exchanges  of  trade  ; 
since  the  freebooter  and  the  pirate  could  not  suffer  more 
than  was  menaced  against  the  merchant  who  should  disre- 
gard the  maritime  monopoly,  — the  seas  became  infested  by 
reckless  buccaneers,  the  natural  offspring  of  colonial  restric- 
tions. Rich  Spanish  settlements  in  America  were  pillaged  ; 
fleets  attacked  and  captured ;  predatory  invasions  were  even 
made  on  land  to  intercept  the  loads  of  gold,  as  they  came 
from  the  mines,  by  men  who  might  have  acquired  honor  and 
wealth  in  commerce,  if  commerce  had  been  permitted. 

In  Europe,  the  freedom  of  the  sea  was  vindicated  against 
Spain  and  Portugal  by  a  people  hardly  yet  recognised  as  an 
independent  state,  occupying  a  soil  of  which  much  had  been 
redeemed  by  industry,  and  driven  by  the  stern  necessity  of 


164  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI. 

a  dense  population  to  seek  for  resources  upon  the  sea.  Gro- 
tius,  her  gifted  son,  who  first  gave  expression  to  the  idea 
that  "  free  ships  make  free  goods,"  defended  the  liberty  of 
commerce,  and  appealed  to  the  judgment  of  all  free  govern- 
ments and  nations  against  the  maritime  restrictions,  which 
humanity  denounced  as  contrary  to  the  principles  of  social 
intercourse ;  which  justice  derided  as  infringing  the  clearest 
natural  rights ;  which  enterprise  rejected  as  a  monstrous 
usurpation  of  the  ocean  and  the  winds.  The  relinquishment 
of  navigation  in  the  East  Indies  was  required  as  the  price 
at  which  her  independence  should  be  acknowledged  ;  and  she 
preferred  to  defend  her  separate  existence  by  her  arms,  rather 
than  purchase  security  by  circumscribing  the  courses  of  her 
ships.  While  the  inglorious  James  of  England  was  negoti- 
ating about  points  of  theology;  while  the  more  unhappy 
Charles  was  struggling  against  the  liberties  of  his  subjects, — 
the  Dutch,  a  little  confederacy,  which  had  been  struck  from 
the  side  of  Spain,  a  new  people,  scarcely  known  as  possessed 
of  nationality,  had,  by  their  superior  skill,  begun  to  engross 
the  carrying  trade  of  the  world.  Their  ships  were  found  in 
the  harbors  of  Virginia ;  in  the  West  Indian  archipelago ; 
in  the  south  of  Africa ;  among  the  tropical  islands  of  the 
Indian  Ocean  ;  and  even  in  the  remote  harbors  of  China  and 
Japan.  Their  trading-houses  were  planted  on  the  Hudson 
and  the  coast  of  Guinea,  in  Java  and  Brazil.  One  or  two 
rocky  islets  in  the  West  Indies,  in  part  neglected  by  the 
Spaniards  as  unworthy  of  culture,  furnished  these  daring 
merchants  a  convenient  shelter  for  a  large  contraband  traffic 
with  the  terra  firma.  The  freedom  and  the  enterprise  of 
Holland  acquired  maritime  power,  and  skill  and  wealth, 
such  as  the  monopoly  of  Spain  could  never  command. 

The  causes  of  the  commercial  greatness  of  Holland  were 
forgotten  in  envy  at  her  success.  She  ceased  to  appear  as 
the  gallant  champion  of  the  freedom  of  the  seas  against 
Spain,  and  became  envied  as  the  successful  rival.  The 
English  government  resolved  to  protect  the  English  mer- 
chant. Cromwell  desired  to  confirm  the  maritime  power 
of  his  country;  and  Saint-John,  a  Puritan  and  a  republi- 
can in  theory,  though  never  averse  to  a  limited  monarchy, 


1655.        RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL  COMMERCE.        165 

devised  the  first  act  of  navigation,  which,  in  1651,  the  i65i. 
politic  Whitelocke  introduced  and  carried  through 
parliament.  Henceforward,  the  commerce  between  Eng- 
land and  her  colonies,  between  England  and  the  rest  of  the 
world,  was  to  be  conducted  in  ships  solely  owned,  and  prin- 
cipally manned,  by  Englishmen.  Foreigners  might  bring 
to  England  nothing  but  the  products  of  their  respective 
countries,  or  those  of  which  their  countries  were  the  estab- 
lished staples.  The  act  was  levelled  against  Dutch  com- 
merce, and  was  but  a  protection  of  British  shipping ;  it 
contained  no  clause  relating  to  a  colonial  monopoly,  or 
specially  injurious  to  an  American  colony.  Of  itself  it 
inflicted  no  Avound  on  Virginia  or  New  England.  In  vain 
did  the  Dutch  expostulate  against  the  act  as  a  breach 
of  commercial  amity;  the  parliament  studied  the  inter- 
ests of  England,  and  would  not  repeal  laws  to  please  a 
neighbor. 

A  naval  war  soon  followed,  which  Cromwell  de-  1662. 
sired,  and  Holland  endeavored  to  avoid.  Each  people 
kindled  with  national  enthusiasm  ;  and  the  annals  of  recorded 
time  had  never  known  so  many  great  naval  actions  in  such 
quick  succession.  This  was  the  war  in  which  Blake  and 
Ayscue  and  De  Ruyter  gained  their  glory;  and  Tromp 
fixed  a  broom  to  his  mast,  as  if  to  sweep  the  English  flag 
from  the  seas. 

Cromwell  was  not  disposed  to  trammel  the  industry  of 
Virginia  and  Maryland  and  New  England ;  he  aspired  to 
make  England  the  commercial  emporium  of  the  world. 
His  plans  extended  to  the  acquisition  of  the  harbors  in  the 
Spanish  Netherlands;  France  was  obliged  to  pledge  her 
aid  to  conquer,  and  her  consent  to  yield,  Dunkirk,  Mardyke, 
and  Gravelines ;  and  Dunkirk,  in  the  summer  of  1658,  was 
given  up  to  his  ambassador  by  the  French  king  in  person. 
Nor  was  this  all :  he  desired  harbors  in  the  North  Sea  and 
the  Baltic ;  and  an  alliance  with  Protestant  Sweden 
was  to  secure  him  Bremen  and  Elsinore  and  Dantzic.  1667. 
In  the  West  Indies,  he  aimed  at  obtaining  Cuba ;  his 
commanders  captured  Jamaica ;  and  the  attempt  at  less, 
the  reduction  of  Hispaniola,  then  the  chief  possession 


166  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI 

of  Spain  among  the  islands,  failed  only  through  the  incoin- 
petency  or  want  of  concert  of  his  agents. 

The  protection  of  English  shipping,  thus  established  as 
a  part  of  the  British  commercial  policy,  was  the  successful 
execution  of  a  scheme  which  many  centuries  before  had  been 
attempted.  A  new  and  a  still  less  justifiable  encourage- 
ment was  soon  demanded,  and  English  merchants  began  to 
insist  upon  the  entire  monopoly  of  the  commerce  of  the 
colonies.  This  question  had  but  recently  been  agitated  in 
parliament.  It  was  within  the  last  few  years  that  England 
had  acquired  colonies ;  and  as,  in  the  beginning,  they  were 
left  to  depend  upon  the  royal  prerogative,  the  public  policy 
with  respect  to  them  can  be  found  only  in  the  proclama- 
tions, charters,  and  instructions  which  emanated  from  the 
monarch. 

The  forecast  of  Henry  VII.  had  considered  the  advan- 
tages which  might  be  derived  from  a  colonial  monopoly ; 
and,  while  ample  privileges  were  bestowed  on  the  advent- 
urers who  sailed  for  the  New  World,  he  stipulated  that  the 
exclusive  staple  of  its  commerce  should  be  made  in  Eng- 
land.    A  century  of  ill  success  had  checked  the  extravagance 
of  hope ;  and  as  the  charters  of  Gilbert  and  of  Raleigh  had 
contained  little  but  concessions,  suited  to  invite  those  emi- 
nent men  to  engage  with  earnestness  in  the  career  of 
1606.       western  discoveries,  so  the  first  charter  for  Virginia 
expressly  admitted  strangers  to  trade  with  the  colony 
1609.       on  payment  of  a  small  discriminating  duty.     On  the 
enlargement  of  the  company,  the   intercourse  with 
foreigners  was  still  permitted ;  nor  were  any  limits  assigned 
to  the  commerce  in  which  they  might  engage.     The 
1612.       last  charter  was  equally  free  from  unreasonable  re- 
strictions on  trade;   and,  by  a  confirmation  of  all 
former  privileges,  it  permitted  to  foreign  nations  the  traffic 
which  it  did  not  expressly  sanction. 

At  an  early  period  of  his  reign,  before  Virginia 
Oct.  17.    nacl  Deen  planted,  King  James  found  in  his  hostility 
to  the  use  of  tobacco  a  convenient  argument  for  the 
excessive  tax  which  a  royal  ordinance  imposed  on  its  con- 
sumption.   When  the  weed  had  evidently  become  the  staple 


1626         RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL   COMMERCE.         167 

of  Virginia,  the  Stuarts  cared  for  nothing  in  the  colony  so 
much  as  for  a  revenue  to  be  derived  from  an  impost  on 
its  produce.     Whatever  display  of  zeal  might  be  made  for 
religion,  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  the  organization  of 
the  government,  and  the  establishment  of  justice,  the 
subject  of  tobacco  was  never  forgotten.     The  sale  of      jjfay! 
it  in  England  was  strictly  prohibited,  unless  the  heavy 
impost  had  been  paid ;  a  proclamation  enforced  the      NOV. 
royal  decree ;  and,  that  the  tax  might  be  gathered  on 
the  entire  consumption,  by  a  new  proclamation  the  Dec.  so. 
culture   of  tobacco   was  forbidden   in  England  and 
Wales,  and  the  plants  already  growing  were  ordered  to  be 
uprooted.     Nor  was  it  long  before  the  importation  and  sale 
of  tobacco  required  a  special  license  from  the  king. 
In  this  manner,  a  compromise  was  effected  between       1020. 
the.  interests  of  the  colonial  planters  and  the  monarch ; 
the  former  obtained  the  exclusive   supply  of  the  English 
market,  and  the  latter  succeeded  in  imposing  an  ex- 
orbitant duty.     In  the  ensuing  parliament,  Lord  Coke       1621. 
did  not  fail  to  remind  the  commons  of  the  usurpa- 
tions of  authority  on  the  part  of  the  monarch,  who  had 
taxed  the  produce  of  the  colonies  without  the  consent  of 
the  people,  and  without  an  act  of  the  national  legislature ; 
and  Sandys  and  Diggs  and  Ferrar,  the  friends  of  Vir- 
ginia, procured  the   substitution   of  an  act  for  the  Apr.  is. 
arbitrary  ordinance.     In  consequence  of  the  dissen- 
sions of  the  times,  the  bill,  which  had  passed  the  house, 
was  left  among  the  unfinished  business  of  the  session ;  nor 
was  the  affair  adjusted,  till,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
the  commons,  in  1624,  again  expressed  their  regard       1624. 
for  Virginia  by  a  petition,  to   which  the  monarch 
readily  attempted  to  give  effect. 

The  first  colonial  measure  of  King  Charles  related       1025. 
to  tobacco  ;  and  the  second  proclamation,  though  its 
object  purported  to  be  the  settling  of  the  plantation  of 
Virginia,  partook  largely  of  the  same  character.     In  a  series 
of  public  acts,  King  Charles  attempted  during  his  reign  to 
acquire  a  revenue  from  this  source.     The  authority 
of  the  star-chamber  was  invoked  to  assist  in  filling      1626. 


168  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI. 

his  exchequer  by  new  and  onerous  duties  on  tobacco ;  his 
commissioners  were  ordered  to  contract  for  all  the  prod- 
uct of  the  colonies;  though  the  Spanish   tobacco  was  not 
steadily   excluded.     All   colonial   tobacco   was   soon 

1627.  ordered  to  be  sealed;  nor  was  its  importation  per- 
mitted except  with  special  license ;  and  we  have  seen 

that  an  attempt  was  made,  by  a  direct  negotiation  with  the 
Virginians,  to  constitute  the  king  the  sole  factor  of 

1628.  their  staple.     The  measure  was  defeated;   and  the 
1631.       monarch  was  left  to  issue  a  new  series  of  proclama- 
tions, constituting  London  the  sole  mart  of  colonial 

less.      tobacco ;  till,  vainly  attempting  to  regulate  the  trade, 
1634.       he  declared  "  his  will  and  pleasure  to  have  the  sole 

pre-emption  of  all  the  tobacco  "  of  the  English  plan- 
1639.  tations.  He  long  adhered  to  this  system  with  resolute 

pertinacity. 

The  measures  of  the  Stuarts  were  ever  unsuccessful, 
because  they  were  directed  against  the  welfare  of  the  col- 
onists, and  were  not  sustained  by  popular  interests  in 
England.  After  the  long-continued  efforts  which  the  enter- 
prise of  English  merchants  and  the  independent  spirit  of 

English  planters  had  perseveringly  defied,  on  the 
1641.  appointment  of  Sir  William  Berkeley,  the  expedient 

was  devised  which  was  destined  to  become  so  cele- 
brated. No  vessel,  laden  with  colonial  commodities,  might 
sail  from  the  harbors  of  Virginia  for  any  ports  but  those  of 
England,  that  the  staple  of  those  commodities  might  be  made 
in  the  mother  country,  and  the  king  be  secure  of  the  cus- 
toms which  were  his  due.  All  trade  with  foreign  vessels, 
except  in  case  of  necessity,  was  forbidden.  This  system, 
which  the  instructions  of  Berkeley  commanded  him  to  in- 
troduce, was  ultimately  successful ;  for  it  sacrificed  no  rights 
but  those  of  the  colonists,  while  it  identified  the  interests 
of  the  English  merchant  and  the  English  government,  and 
leagued  them  together  for  the  oppression  of  those  who,  for 
more  than  a  century,  were  too  feeble  to  offer  effectual  re- 
sistance. 

1647.         The  Long  Parliament  was  more  just ;  it  attempted 
Jan.  23.  j.o  gecure  to  English  shipping  the  carrying  trade  of 


1652.        RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL   COMMERCE. 


169 


the  colonies,  but  with  the  consent  of  the  colonies  them- 
selves ;  offering  an  equivalent,  which  the  legislatures  in 
America  were  at  liberty  to  reject. 

The  memorable  ordinance  of  October,  1650,  was  a       O6c5t°; 
war  measure,  and  extended  only  to  the  colonies  which 
had  adhered  to  the  Stuarts.     All  intercourse  with  them  was 
forbidden,  except  to  those  who  had  a  license  from  parlia- 
ment or  the  council  of  state.     Foreigners  were  rigorously 
excluded ;  and  this  prohibition  was  designed  to  continue 
in  force  even  after  the  suppression  of  all  resistance. 
While,  therefore,  the  navigation  act  secured  to  Eng-       i65i. 
lish  ships  the  entire  carrying  trade  with  England,  in 
connection  with  the  ordinance  of  the  preceding  year,  it  con- 
ferred a  monopoly  of  colonial  commerce. 

But  this  state  of  commercial  law  was  modified  by  the 
manner  in  which  the  authority  of  the  English  commonwealth 
was  established  in  the  Chesapeake.  The  republican  leaders 
of  Great  Britain  suffered  the  fever  of  party  to  subside, 
before  decisive  measures  were  adopted ;  and  then  Richard 
Bennett  and  Clayborne,  two  of  the  commissioners 
whom  they  appointed,  were  taken  from  among  the  Sept.  26. 
planters  themselves.  The  instructions  given  them 
were  such  as  Virginians  might  carry  into  effect ;  for  they 
constituted  them  the  pacificators  and  benefactors  of  their 
country.  In  case  of  resistance,  war  was  threatened.  If  Vir- 
ginia would  adhere  to  the  commonwealth,  she  might  be  the 
mistress  of  her  own  destiny. 

The  force  that  was  sent  to  reduce ,  Barbados  encountered 
some  resistance  from  the  royalist  government;  but 
the  people  found  their  liberties  secured  by  their  sur-  1652. 
render.  One  of  their  number  in  a  letter  to  Bradshaw, 
then  president  of  the  council  of  state,  raised  the  question  of 
the  coming  century ;  saying :  "  The  great  difficulty  is,  how 
we  shall  have  a  representative  with  you  in  your  government 
and  our  parliament.  That  two  representatives  be  chosen  by 
this  island,  to  advise  and  consent  to  matters  that  concern  this 
place,  may  be  both  just  and  necessary ;  for,  if  laws  be  imposed 
upon  us  without  our  personal  or  implied  consent,  we  cannot  be 
accounted  better  than  slaves ;  which  as  all  Englishmen  abhor 


170  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VL 

to  see,  so  I  am  confident  you  detest  to  have  them.     This  is 
so  clear  that  I  shall  not  need  to  enforce  it  with  argument." 

The  question  of  representation  in  the  English  parliament 
was  renewed  in  England  for  Barbados ;  it  did  not  as  yet 
arise  in  the  continental  colonies.  What  opposition  needed 

to  be  made  to  a  power  which  seemed  voluntarily  to 
Marck  propose  a  virtual  independence  ?  No  sooner  had  the 

Guinea  frigate  anchored  in  the  waters  of  the  Chesa- 
peake, than  "  all  thoughts  of  resistance  were  laid  aside,"  and 
the  colonists,  having  no  motive  to  contend  for  a  monarch 
whose  fortunes  seemed  irretrievable,  were  earnest  only  to 
assert  the  freedom  of  their  own  institutions.  They  yielded 
by  a  voluntary  deed  and  a  mutual  compact.  It  was  agreed, 
upon  the  surrender,  that  the  "  PEOPLE  OF  VIRGINIA  "  should 
have  all  the  liberties  of  the  free-born  people  of  England; 
should  intrust  their  business,  as  formerly,  to  their  own  grand 
assembly ;  should  remain  unquestioned  for  their  past  loyalty ; 
and  should  have  "  as  free  trade  as  the  people  of  England." 
All  this  was  confirmed  by  the  Long  Parliament ;  but  the 
article  which  restored  to  Virginia  its  ancient  bounds  and 
limits  according  to  the  charters  of  James  I.  by  a  new  char- 
ter to  be  sought  from  the  parliament,  against  any  that  had 
intrenched  upon  the  rights  thereof,  and  that  which  cove- 
nanted that  no  taxes,  no  customs,  might  be  levied,  except 
by  their  own  representatives,  no  forts  erected,  no  garrisons 
maintained,  but  by  their  own  consent,  were  referred  to  a 
committee,  and  were  never  definitively  acted  upon.  In  the 
settlement  of  the  government,  harmony  prevailed  between 
the  burgesses  and  the  commissioners  :  it  was  the  governor 
and  council  who  alone  had  apprehensions  for  their  safety, 
and  who  provided  a  guarantee  for  the  security  of  their  per- 
sons and  property,  which  there  existed  no  design  to  injure. 

Till  the  restoration,  the  colony  of  Virginia  practically 
enjoyed  liberties  as  large  as  the  favored  New  England,  and 
displayed  equal  fondness  for  popular  sovereignty.  The 
executive  officers  became  elective ;  and  so  evident  were  the 
designs  of  all  parties  to  promote  an  amicable  settlement  of 
the  government,  that  Richard  Bennett,  himself  a  commis- 
sioner of  the  parliament,  and,  moreover,  a  merchant  and  a 


1658.        RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL   COMMERCE.         171 

Roundhead,  was,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  other 
commissioners,  unanimously  chosen  governor.     The 
oath  required  of  the  burgesses  made  it  their  para- 
mount duty  to  provide  for  "  the  general  good  and  prosper- 
ity "  of  Virginia  and  its  inhabitants,      tinder  Berkeley's 
administration,  Bennett  had  been  oppressed  in  Virginia; 
and  now  there  was  not  the  slightest  effort  at  revenge. 

The  act  which  constituted  the  government  claimed     April, 
for  the  assembly  the  privilege  of  defining  the  powers 
which  were  to  belong  to  the  governor  and  council ; 
and  the  public  good  was  declared  to  require  "that    May 5. 
the    right   of    electing    all    officers    of    this    colony 
should  appertain  to  the  burgesses,"  as  to  "the  representa- 
tives  of  the  people."     It  had  been   usual  for  the 
governor  and   council  to  sit  in  the  assembly;  the    May 6. 
expediency  of  the  custom  was  questioned,  and  a  tem- 
porary compromise   ensued;    they   retained   their    former 
right,  but  were  required  to  take  the  oath  which  was  admin- 
istered to  the  burgesses.    Thus  the  house  of  burgesses  acted 
as  a  convention  of  the  people ;  exercising  supreme  authority, 
and  distributing  power  as  the  public  welfare  required. 

Cromwell  never  made  any  appointments  for  Virginia; 
not  one  governor  acted  under  his  commission.  When 
Bennett  retired  from  office,  the  assembly  elected  his  j^5^ 
successor ;  and  Edward  Diggs,  who  had  before  been 
chosen  of  the  council,  and  who  "had  given  a  signal  testi- 
mony of  his  fidelity  to  Virginia,  and  to  the  commonwealth 
of  England,"  received  the  suffrages.  Upon  a  report  of  a 
committee  concerning  the  unsettled  government  of  Virginia, 
the  council  of  state  in  London  nominated  to  the  protector 
Edward  Diggs  for  the  office  of  governor,  the  very  same 
man,  as  one  who  would  satisfy  all  parties  and  interests 
among  the  colonists ;  but  no  evidence  has  been  found  that 
Cromwell  acted  upon  the  advice.  The  commissioners  in 
the  colony  were  chiefly  engaged  in  settling  the  affairs  and 
adjusting  the  boundaries  of  Maryland. 

The  right  of  electing  the  governor  continued  to  be  exer- 
cised by  the  representatives  of  the  people ;  and  in 
1G58  Samuel  Matthews,  son  of  an  old  planter,  was      less. 


172  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI. 

chosen  to  the  office.  But,  from  too  exalted  ideas  of 
his  station,  he,  with  the  council,  became  involved  in  an 
unequal  contest  with  the  assembly  by  which  he  had  been 
elected.  The  burgesses  had  enlarged  their  power  by  ex- 
cluding the  governor  and  council  from  their  sessions,  and, 
having  thus  reserved  to  themselves  the  first  free  dis- 
A16iiu  cussi°n  °f  every  law,  had  voted  an  adjournment  till 
November.  The  governor  and  council,  by  message, 
declared  the  dissolution  of  the  assembly.  The  legality  of 
the  dissolution  was  denied ;  and,  after  an  oath  of  secrecy, 
every  burgess  was  enjoined  not  to  betray  his  trust  by  sub- 
mission. Matthews  yielded,  reserving  a  right  of  appeal  to 
the  protector.  When  the  house  unanimously  voted  the 
governor's  answer  unsatisfactory,  he  revoked  the  order  of 
dissolution,  biit  still  referred  the  decision  of  the  dispute  to 
Cromwell.  The  members  of  the  assembly,  apprehensive  of 
a  limitation  of  colonial  liberty  by  the  reference  of  a  politi- 
cal question  to  England,  determined  on  the  assertion  of 
their  independent  powers.  A  committee  was  appointed,  of 
which  John  Carter,  of  Lancaster,  was  the  chief ;  and  a  dec- 
laration of  popular  sovereignty  was  made.  The  governor 
and  council  had  ordered  the  dissolution  of  the  assembly; 
the  burgesses  now  annulled  the  former  election  of  governor 
and  council.  Having  thus  exercised  not  merely  the  right  of 
election,  but  the  more  extraordinary  right  of  removal,  they 
re-elected  Matthews,  "  who  by  us,"  they  added,  "  shall  be 
invested  with  all  the  just  rights  and  privileges  belonging  to 
the  governor  and  captain-general  of  Virginia."  The  gov- 
ernor acknowledged  the  validity  of  his  ejection  by  taking 
the  oath,  which  had  just  been  prescribed,  and  the  council 
was  organized  anew.  The  spirit  of  popular  liberty  estab- 
lished all  its  claims. 

I65g  On  the  death  of  Cromwell,  the  burgesses  deliber- 

ated in  private,  and  unanimously  resolved  that  Rich- 
ard Cromwell  should  be  acknowleged.  But  it  was  a  more 
interesting  question,  whether  the  change  of  protector  in 
England  would  endanger  liberty  in  Virginia.  The  letter 
from  the  council  had  left  the  government  to  be  admin- 
istered according  to  former  usage.  The  assembly  declared 


1660.        RESTRICTIONS   ON  COLONIM,  COMMERCE.         173 

itself  satisfied  -with  the  language.     But,  that  there  might 
be   no   reason   to   question   the   existing  usage,   the 
governor   was   summoned   to    come   to   the   house ;       1659. 
where  he  appeared  in  person,  acknowledged  the  su- 
preme power  of  electing  officers  to  be,  by  the  present  laws, 
resident  in  the  assembly,  and  pledged  himself  to  join  in 
addressing  the  new  protector  for  special  confirmation  of  all 
existing  privileges.     The  reason  for  this  proceeding  is  as- 
signed :  "  that  what  was  their  privilege  now,  might  be  the 
privilege  of  their  posterity." 

On  the  death  of  Matthews,  the  Virginians  were 
without  a  chief  magistrate,  at  the  time  when  the  res-  M^'h, 
ignation  of  Richard  had  left  England  without  a  gov- 
ernment. The  burgesses,  who  were  immediately  convened, 
enacted  "  that  the  supreme  power  of  the  government  of  this 
country  shall  be  resident  in  the  assembly;  and  all  writs 
shall  issue  in  its  name,  until  there  shall  arrive  from  England 
a  commission,  which  the  assembly  itself  shall  adjudge  to  be 
lawful."  This  having  been  done,  Sir  "William  Berkeley  was 
elected  governor;  and,  acknowledging  the  validity  of  the 
acts  of  the  burgesses,  whom,  it  was  agreed,  he  could  in  no 
event  dissolve,  he  accepted  the  office,  and  recognised,  with- 
out a  scruple,  the  authority  to  which  he  owed  his  elevation. 
"  I  am,"  said  he,  "  but  a  servant  of  the  assembly."  Virginia 
did  not  claim  independence,  but,  awaiting  the  settlement  of 
affairs  in  England,  hoped  for  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts. 

The  legislation  of  the  colony  had  taken  its  character  from 
the  people,  whose  pursuits  were  essentially  agricultural ; 
and  it  is  the  interest  of  society  in  that  state  to  discounte- 
nance contracting  debts.  Severe  laws  for  the  benefit  of  the 
creditor  are  the  fruits  of  commercial  society ;  Virginia  pos- 
sessed not  one  considerable  town,  and  her  statutes  favored 
the  independence  of  the  planter  rather  than  the  security  of 
trade.  The  representatives  of  colonial  landholders  voted 
"  the  total  ejection  of  mercenary  attorneys."  By  a  special 
act,  emigrants  were  safe  against  suits  designed  to  enforce 
engagements  that  had  been  made  in  Europe ;  and  colonial 
obligations  might  be  satisfied  by  a  surrender  of  property. 
Tobacco  was  generally  used  instead  of  coin.  Theft  was 


174  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VI. 

hardly  known,  and  the  spirit  of  the  criminal  law  was  mild. 
The  highest  judicial  tribunal  was  the  assembly,  which  was 
convened  once  a  year,  or  oftener.  Already  large  landed 
proprietors  were  frequent ;  and  plantations  of  two  thousand 
acres  were  not  unknown. 

During  the  suspension  of  the  royal  government  in  Eng- 
land, Virginia  regulated  her  commerce  by  independent  laws. 
The  ordinance  of  1650  was  rendered  void  by  the  act  of  capit- 
ulation ;  the  navigation  act  of  Cromwell  was  not  designed 
for  her  oppression,  and  was  not  enforced  within  her  borders. 
If  an  occasional  confiscation  took  place,  it  was  done  by  the 
authority  of  the  colonial  assembly.     The  war  between  Eng- 
land and  the  United   Provinces   did    not  wholly  interrupt 
the  intercourse  of  the  Dutch  with  the   English   colonies; 
and  if,  after  the  treaty  of  peace,  the  trade  was  considered 
contraband,  the  English  restrictions  were  entirely  dis- 
1656.       regarded.     A  remonstrance,  addressed  to  Cromwell, 
demanded  an  unlimited  liberty ;  and  we  may  sup- 
less.     pose  that  it  was  not  refused  ;  for,  some  months  before 
March.    Cromwell's  death,  the  Virginians  "  invited  the  Dutch 
and  all  foreigners "  to  trade  with   them,  on   payment   of 
no  higher  duty  than  that  which  was  levied  on  such  Eng- 
lish vessels  as  were  bound  for  a  foreign  port.     Proposals  of 
peace  and  commerce  between   New  Netherland   and  Vir- 
ginia were  discussed  without  scruple  by  the  respec- 
leeo.       tive  colonial  governments ;  and  in  1660  a  statute  of 
Virginia  extended  to  every  Christian  nation,  in  amity 
with  England,  a  promise  of  liberty  to  trade  and  equal  jus- 
tice.    At  the  restoration,  Virginia  enjoyed  freedom  of  com- 
merce. 

Religious  liberty   advanced   under   the   influence   of  in- 
dependent  domestic   legislation.      No   churches   had   been 
erected  except  in  the  heart  of  the  colony ;  and  there  were  so 
few  ministers  that  a  bounty  was  offered  for  their  importa- 
tion.    In  the  reign  of  Charles,  conformity  had  been  enforced 
by    measures    of   disfranchisement    and    exile ;    under    the 
commonwealth,   all   things   respecting  parishes   and 
Mar?i.    parishioners  were  referred  to  their   own   ordering; 
and  religious  liberty  would  have  been  perfect,  but 


CHAP.  VI.     RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL   COMMERCE.    175 

for  an  net  of  intolerance,  by  which  all  Quakers  were  ban- 
ished, and  their  return  regarded  as  a  felony. 

Virginia  was  the  first   state  in  the  world,  composed  of 
separate  boroughs,  diffused  over  an  extensive  surface,  where 
representation  was  organized  on  the  principle  of  uni- 
versal  suffrage.     In  1655,  an  attempt  was  made  to       1055. 
limit  the  right  to  housekeepers;  but  the  very  next 
year  it  was  decided  to  be  "  hard,  and  unagreeable  to       ie?6. 
reason,  that  any  person  shall  pay  equal  taxes,  and  yet 
have  no  votes  in  elections ; "  and  the  electoral  franchise  was 
restored  to  all  freemen.     Servants,  when  the  time  of  their 
bondage  was   completed,  became   electors,   and    might   be 
chosen  burgesses. 

Thus  Virginia  established  the  supremacy  of  the  popular 
branch,  freedom  of  trade,  the  independence  of  religious 
societies,  security  from  foreign  taxation,  and  the  universal 
elective  franchise.  Proud  of  her  own  sons,  she  already  pre- 
ferred them  for  places  of  authority.  Emigrants  never  again 
desired  to  live  in  England.  Prosperity  advanced  with  free- 
dom ;  dreams  of  new  staples  and  infinite  wealth  were 
indulged ;  and  the  population,  at  the  epoch  of  the  restora- 
tion, may  have  been  about  thirty  thousand.  Many  of  the 
recent  comers  had  been  royalists,  good  officers  in  the  war, 
men  of  education,  of  property,  and  of  condition.  The  revo- 
lution had  not  subdued  their  characters  ;  but  the  waters 
of  the  Atlantic  divided  them  from  the  political  strifes  of 
Europe  ;  their  industry  was  employed  in  making  the  best 
advantage  of  their  plantations  ;  and  the  interests  and  liber- 
ties of  the  land  which  they  adopted  were  dearer  to  them 
than  the  monarchical  principles  which  they  had  espoused  in 
England.  Virginia  had  long  been  the  home  of  its  inhabi- 
tants. "  Among  many  other  blessings,"  said  their  statute- 
book,  "  God  Almighty  hath  vouchsafed  increase  of  children 
to  this  colony ;  who  are  now  multiplied  to  a  considerable 
number ; "  and  the  huts  in  the  wilderness  were  as  full  as 
the  birds'-nests  of  the  woods. 

The  genial  climate  and  transparent  atmosphere  delighted 
those  who  had  come  from  the  denser  air  of  England.  Every 
object  in  nature  was  new  and  wonderful.  The  loud  and 


176  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VL 

frequent  thunder-storms  were  phenomena  that  had  been 
rarely  witnessed  in  the  colder  summers  of  the  north ;  the 
forests,  majestic  in  their  growth,  and  free  from  under- 
wood, deserved  admiration  for  their  unrivalled  magnifi- 
cence ;  purling  streams  and  frequent  rivers,  flowing  between 
alluvial  banks,  quickened  the  ever  pregnant  soil  into  an 
unwearied  fertility ;  strange  and  delicate  flowers  grew 
familiarly  in  the  fields  ;  the  woods  were  replenished  with 
sweet  barks  and  odors ;  the  gardens  matured  the  fruits  of 
Europe,  of  which  the  growth  was  invigorated  and  the  flavor 
improved  by  the  virgin  mould.  Especially  the  birds,  with 
their  gay  plumage  and  varied  melodies,  inspired  delight ; 
every  traveller  expressed  his  pleasure  in  listening  to  the 
mocking-bird,  which  carolled  a  thousand  several  tunes,  imi- 
tating and  excelling  the  notes  of  all  its  rivals.  The  hum- 
ming-bird, so  brilliant  in  its  plumage,  and  so  delicate  in  its 
form,  quick  in  motion,  yet  not  fearing  the  presence  of 
man,  haunting  the  flowers  like  the  bee  gathering  honey, 
rebounding  from  the  blossoms  into  which  it  dips  its  bill, 
and  as  soon  returning  "  to  renew  its  many  addresses  to 
its  delightful  objects,"  was  ever  admired  as  the  smallest  and 
the  most  beautiful  of  the  feathered  race.  The  rattlesnake, 
with  the  terrors  of  its  alarms  and  the  power  of  its  venom ; 
the  opossum,  soon  to  become  as  celebrated  for  the  care  of 
its  offspring  as  the  fabled  pelican ;  the  noisy  frog,  booming 
from  the  shallows  like  the  English  bittern  ;  the  flying  squir- 
rel; the  myriads  of  pigeons,  darkening  the  air  with  the 
immensity  of  their  flocks,  and,  as  men  believed,  break- 
ing with  their  weight  the  boughs  of  trees  on  which  they 
alighted,  —  were  all  honored  with  frequent  commemoration, 
and  became  the  subjects  of  the  strangest  tales.  The  con- 
current relation  of  Indians  justified  the  belief  that,  within 
ten  days'  journey  towards  the  setting  of  the  sun,  there  was 
a  country  where  gold  might  be  washed  from  the  sand,  and 
where  the  natives  had  learned  the  use  of  the  crucible  ;  but 
inquiry  was  always  baffled;  and  the  regions  of  gold,  re- 
mained for  two  centuries  undiscovered. 

Various  were  the  employments  by  which  the   calmness 
of  life  was  relieved.     George  Sandys,  who  for  a  time  was  in 


CHAP.  VI.    RESTRICTIONS   ON   COLONIAL  COMMERCE.    177 

Virginia  as  treasurer  for  the  colony,  but  did  not  remain 
there,  a  poet,  whose  verse  was  tolerated  by  Dryden  and 
praised  by  his  friend  Drayton  and  by  Izaak  "Walton,  as  well 
as  by  Richard  Baxter,  employed  the  hours  of  night  in  trans- 
lating the  last  ten  books  of  Ovid's  Metamorphoses.  To  the 
man  of  leisure,  the  chase  furnished  a  perpetual  resource. 
It  was  not  long  before  the  horse  was  multiplied  in  Virginia ; 
and  to  improve  that  noble  animal  was  early  an  object  of 
pride,  soon  to  be  favored  by  legislation. 

Equally  proverbial  was  the  hospitality  of  the  Virginians. 
Land  was  cheap,  and  competence  promptly  followed  indus- 
try. There  was  no  need  of  a  scramble.  The  morasses  were 
alive  with  water-fowl ;  the  creeks  abounded  with  oysters, 
heaped  together  in  inexhaustible  beds;  the  rivers  were 
crowded  with  fish  ;  the  forests  were  nimble  with  game  ;  the 
woods  rustled  with  coveys  of  quails  and  wild  turkeys,  and 
rung  with  the  merry  notes  of  singing-birds ;  and  hogs, 
swarming  like  vermin,  ran  at  large  in  troops.  It  was  "  the 
best  poor  man's  country  in  the  world."  "  If  a  happy  peace 
be  settled  in  poor  England,"  it  had  been  said,  "  then  they  in 
Virginia  shall  be  as  happy  a  people  as  any  under  heaven." 
But  plenty  encouraged  indolence.  No  domestic  manufac- 
tures were  established ;  every  thing  was  imported  from 
England.  The  chief  branch  of  industry  was  tobacco-plant- 
ing; and  invention  was  enfeebled  by  the  uniformity  of 
pursuit. 


VOL.  i.  12 


178  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIL 


CHAPTER  VII. 

COLONIZATION   OF   MABYLAND. 

1609.  VIRGINIA,  by  its  second  charter,  extended  two  hun- 
dred miles  north  of  Old  Point  Comfort,  and  therefore 
included  the  soil  which  forms  the  state  of  Maryland.  It  was 
not  long  before  the  country  towards  the  head  of  the  Chesa- 
peake was  explored ;  settlements  in  Accomack  were  extended ; 
and  commerce  was  begun  with  tribes  which  Smith  had  been 
the  first  to  visit.  Pory,  the  secretary  of  the  colony, 
1621.  "  made  a  discovery  into  the  great  bay,"  as  far  as  the 
river  Patuxent,  which  he  ascended ;  but  his  voyage 
probably  reached  no  further  to  the  north.  An  English 
settlement  of  a  hundred  men,  on  the  eastern  shore,  was  a 
consequence  of  his  voyage.  The  hope  "  of  a  very  good 
trade  of  furs "  animated  the  adventurers ;  and  commerce 
with  the  Indians  was  earnestly  pursued  under  the  sanction 
of  the  Virginia  government. 

An  attempt  to  obtain  a  monopoly  of  this  intercourse  was 
made  by  William  Clayborne,  whose  resolute  spirit  was  des- 
tined  to  exert   a  powerful   and   long-continued    influence. 
His  first  appearance  in  America  was  as  a  surveyor,  sent  by 
the  London  company  to  make  a  map  of  the  country. 

1624.  At  the  fall  of  the  corporation,  he  had  been  appointed 
by  King  James  a  member  of  the  council ;  and,  on  the 

1625.  accession  of  Charles,  was  continued  in  office,  and,  in 
1627  to    repeated  commissions,  was   nominated  secretary   of 

G29-  state.  He  further  received  authority  from  the  gov- 
ernors of  Virginia  to  discover  the  source  of  the  Bay 
of  the  Chesapeake,  and,  indeed,  any  part  of  the  province, 
from  the  thirty-fourth  to  the  forty-first  degree  of  latitude. 
Upon  his  favorable  representation  of  the  opportunities  for 
traffic  which  the  country  afforded,  a  company  was  formed 
in  England  for  trading  with  the  natives ;  and,  through  the 


1621.  COLONIZATION   OF  MARYLAND.  179 

agency  of  Sir  William  Alexander,  the  Scottish  pro- 
prietary of  Nova  Scotia,  in  May,  1631,  a  royal  license 
was  issued,  sanctioning  the  commerce,  and  conferring 
on  Clayborne  powers  of  government  over  the  companions 
of  his  voyages.     Under  this  grant,  the  Isle  of   Kent  was 
occupied  in  the  following  August,  and  the  right  to  the  soil 
was  soon  after  purchased  of  the   Indians.    An   advanced 
post  was  established  near  the  mouth  of  the  Susquehannah. 
The  settlers  on  Kent  Island  were  all  members  of  the 
church  of  England ;  and  in  February,  1632,  they  were       1632. 
represented  by  a  burgess  in  the  grand  assembly  of 
Virginia.     In  March  of  that  year,  their  license  was   Mar.  8. 
confirmed  by  a  commission  from  Sir  John  Harvey 
as  governor  of  Virginia. 

The  United  States  were  severally  colonized  by  men,  in 
origin,  religious  faith,  and  purposes,   as  various   as  their 
climes.    Before  Virginia  could  occupy  the  country  north  of 
the  Potomac,  a  new  government  in  that  quarter  was 
promised  to  Sir  George  Calvert.     Born  in  Yorkshire,       isso. 
educated  at  Oxford,  with  a  mind  enlarged  by  extensive 
travel,  on  his  entrance  into  life  befriended  by  Sir  Rob- 
ert Cecil,  advanced  to  the  honors  of  knighthood,  and       lew. 
at  length  employed  as  one  of  the  two  secretaries  of 
state,  he  not  only  secured  the  consideration  of  his  patron 
and  his  sovereign,  but  the  good  opinion  of  the  world. 
In  1621,  he  stood  with  Wentworth  to  represent  in  par-      1621. 
liament  his  native  county,  and  escaped  defeat,  though 
not  a  resident  in  the  shire.     His  capacity  for  business,  his 
industry,  and  his  fidelity  to  the  king,  are  acknowledged  by 
all  historians.     In  the  house  of  commons,  it  was  he  who 
made   an   untimely  speech   for  the   supply   of   the  king's 
wants ;  and,  when  they  claimed  their  liberties  as  their  an- 
cient and  undoubted  right  and  inheritance,  it  was  to  Calvert 
the  king  unbosomed  his  anger  at  their  use  of  such  "  anti- 
monarchical  words."     The  negotiations  for  the   marriage 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales  with  a  Spanish  princess  were  con- 
ducted entirely  by  him.    In  an  age  of  increasing  divisions 
among  Protestants,  his  mind   sought  relief  from   contro- 
versy in  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church;  and, 


180  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIL 

professing  his  conversion  without  forfeiting  the  king's 
1624.  favor,  he  disposed  advantageously  of  his  place,  which 

had  been  granted  him  for  life,  and  obtained  the  title 
of  Lord  Baltimore  in  the  Irish  peerage. 

He  had,  from  early  years,  shared  in  the  general  enthusiasm 
of  England  in  favor  of  American  plantations;  had  been 
a  member  of  the  great  company  for  Virginia ;  and,  while 
secretary  of  state,  had  obtained  a  special  patent  for  the 
southern  promontory  of  Newfoundland,  named  Avalon,  after 
the  fabled  isle  from  which  King  Arthur  was  to  return  alive. 
How  zealous  he  was  in  selecting  suitable  emigrants ;  how 
earnest  to  promote  order  and  industry ;  how  lavishly  he  ex- 
pended his  estate  in  advancing  the  interests  of  his  settle- 
ment,—  is  related  by  those  who  have  written  of  his  life. 
He  desired,  as  a  founder  of  a  colony,  not  present  profit,  but 
a  reasonable  expectation  ;  and,  avoiding  the  evils  of  a  com- 
mon stock,  he  left  each  one  to  enjoy  the  results  of  his  own 

industry.  Twice  did  he,  in  person,  inspect  his  settle- 
1629.  ment.  On  his  second  visit,  with  ships,  manned  at 

his  own  charge,  he  repelled  the  French,  who  were 
hovering  round  the  coast  to  annoy  English  fishermen ;  and, 
having  taken  sixty  of  them  prisoners,  he  secured  a  tem- 
porary tranquillity  to  his  countrymen  and  his  colonists. 

Notwithstanding  this  success,  he  wrote  to  the  king  from 
his  province  that  the  difficulties  he  had  encountered  in  that 
place  were  no  longer  to  be  resisted ;  that  from  October  to 
May  both  land  and  sea  were  frozen  the  greatest  part  of  the 
time ;  that  he  was  forced  to  shift  to  some  warmer  climate  of 
the  New  World ;  that,  though  his  strength  was  much  de- 
cayed, his  inclination  carried  him  naturally  to  "  proceedings 
in  plantations."  He  therefore  desired  the  grant  of  a  pre- 
cinct of  land  in  Virginia,  with  the  same  privileges  which 
King  James  had  conceded  to  him  in  Newfoundland. 

Despatching  this  petition  to  the  reigning  king,  he 
Oct.       embarked  for  Virginia,  and  arrived  there  in  October, 

the  season  in  which  the  country  on  the  Chesapeake 
arrays  itself  in  its  most  attractive  brightness.  The  gov- 
ernor and  council  forthwith  ordered  the  oaths  of  alle- 
giance and  supremacy  to  be  tendered  him.  It  was  in  vain 


1629.  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  181 

that  he  proposed  a  form  which  he  was  willing  to  subscribe ; 
they  insisted  upon  that  which  had  been  chosen  by  the  Eng- 
lish statutes,  and  which  was  purposely  framed  in  such  lan- 
guage as  no  Catholic  could  adopt.  An  explanatory  letter 
was  transmitted  from  the  Virginia  government  to  the  privy 
council ;  and  they  implored  that  no  papists  might  be  suffered 
to  settle  amongst  them. 

Almost  at  the  very  time  when  this  report  was  written,  the 
king  at  Whitehall,  weighing  that  men  of  Lord  Baltimore's 
condition  and  breeding  were  unfit  for  the  rugged  and  labo- 
rious beginnings  of  new  plantations,  advised  him  to  desist 
from  further  prosecuting  his  designs,  and  to  return  to  his 
native  country.  He  came  back ;  but  it  was  "  to  extol  Vir- 
ginia to  the  skies,"  and  to  persist  in  his  entreaties.  It  was 
represented  that  on  the  north  of  the  Potomac  there  lay  a 
country  occupied  only  by  scattered  hordes  of  native  tribes. 
The  French,  the  Dutch,  and  the  Swedes  were  preparing  to 
occupy  it ;  and  a  grant  seemed  the  readiest  mode  of  secur- 
ing it  by  an  English  settlement.  The  cancelling  of  the 
Virginia  patents  had  restored  to  the  monarch  his  preroga- 
tive over  the  soil ;  and  it  was  not  difficult  for  Calvert  —  a 
man  of  such  moderation  that  all  parties  were  taken  with 
him ;  sincere  in  his  character,  disengaged  from  all  interests, 
and  a  favorite  with  the  royal  family  —  to  obtain  a  charter 
for  uncultivated  domains  in  that  happy  clime.  The  condi- 
tions of  the  grant  conformed  to  the  wishes,  it  may  be  to  the 
suggestions,  of  the  first  Lord  Baltimore  himself,  although  it 
was  finally  issued  for  the  benefit  of  his  son. 

The  ocean,  the  fortieth  parallel  of  latitude,  the  merid- 
ian of  the  western  fountain  of  the  Potomac,  the  river 
itself  from  its  source  to  its  mouth,  and  a  line  drawn 
due  east  from  "Watkin's  Point  to  the  Atlantic,  —  these 
were  the  limits  of  the  territory,  which  was  now  erected 
into  a  province,  and  by  the  king's  command,  from  Henrietta 
Maria,  the  daughter  of  Henry  IV.  and  wife  of  Charles  I., 
whose  restless  mind,  disdaining  contentment  in  domestic 
happiness,  aspired  to  every  kind  of  power  and  distinction, 
took  the  name  of  Maryland.  The  country  thus  described 
was  given  to  Lord  Baltimore,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  as  to  its 


182  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIL 

absolute  lord  and  proprietary,  to  be  holden  by  the  tenure  of 
fealty  only,  paying  a  yearly  rent  of  two  Indian  arrows,  and 
a  fifth  of  all  gold  and  silver  ore  which  might  be  found. 
Yet  absolute  authority  was  conceded  to  him  rather  with 
reference  to  the  crown  than  the  colonists.  The  charter,  like 
the  constitution  of  Virginia  of  July,  1621,  provided  for  a 
resident  council  of  state ;  and  like  his  patent,  which,  in 
April,  1623,  had  passed  the  great  seal  for  Avalon,  secured 
to  the  emigrants  themselves  an  independent  share  in  the 
legislation  of  the  province,  of  which  the  statutes  were  to 
be  established  with  the  advice  and  approbation  of  the 
majority  of  the  freemen  or  their  deputies.  Authority  was 
intrusted  to  the  proprietary,  from  time  to  time,  to  consti- 
tute fit  and  wholesome  ordinances,  provided  they  were 
consonant  to  reason  and  the  laws  of  England,  and  did  not 
extend  to  the  life,  freehold,  or  estate  of  any  emigrant.  For 
the  benefit  of  the  colony,  the  statutes  restraining  emigra- 
tion were  dispensed  with ;  and  all  present  and  future  liege 
people  of  the  English  king,  except  such  as  should  be  ex- 
pressly forbidden,  might  transport  themselves  and  their 
families  to  Maryland.  Christianity,  as  professed  by  the 
church  of  England,  was  protected;  but  the  patronage  and 
advowsons  of  churches  were  vested  in  the  proprietary ;  and, 
as  there  was  not  an  English  statute  on  religion  in  which 
America  was  specially  named,  silence  left  room  for  the 
settlement  of  religious  affairs  by  the  colony.  Nor  was  Balti- 
more obliged  to  obtain  the  royal  assent  to  his  appointments 
of  officers,  nor  to  the  legislation  of  his  province,  nor  even  to 
make  a  communication  of  the  one  or  the  other.  Moreover, 
the  English  monarch,  by  an  express  stipulation,  covenanted 
that  neither  he,  nor  his  heirs,  nor  his  successors,  should 
ever,  at  any  time  thereafter,  set  any  imposition,  custom, 
or  tax  whatsoever,  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  province. 
To  the  proprietary  was  given  the  power  of  creating  manors 
and  courts  baron,  and  of  establishing  a  colonial  aristocracy 
on  the  system  of  sub-infeudation.  But  feudal  institutions 
could  not  be  perpetuated  in  the  lands  of  their  origin,  far 
less  renew  their  youth  in  America.  Sooner  might  the  oldest 
oaks  in  Windsor  forest  be  transplanted  across  the  Atlantic, 


1633.  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  183 

than  the  social  forms  which  Europe  was  beginning  to  reject 
as  antiquated.  But  the  seeds  of  popular  liberty,  contained 
in  the  charter,  would  find  in  the  Xew  World  the  soil  best 
suited  to  quicken  them. 

Sir  George  Calvert  deserves  to  be  ranked  among  wise  and 
benevolent  lawgivers,  for  he  connected  his  hopes  of  the 
aggrandizement  of  his  family  with  the  establishment  of 
popular  institutions;  and,  being  a  "papist,  wanted  not 
charity  towards  Protestants." 

Before  the  patent  could  pass  the  great  seal,  be  died, 
leaving  a  name  in  private  life  free  from  reproach.  As 
a  statesman,  he  was  taunted  with  being  "  an  Hispaniolized 
papist;"  and  the  justice  of  history  must  avow  that  he  mis- 
conceived the  interests  of  his  country  and  of  his  king,  and 
took  part  in  exposing  to  danger  civil  liberty  and  the  rights 
of  the  parliament  of  England.  For  his  son,  Cecil  Calvert, 
the  heir  of  his  father's  intentions  not  less  than  of  his  father's 
fortunes,  the  charter  of  Maryland  was  published  and 
confirmed ;  and  he  obtained  the  high  distinction  of  June  20. 
successfully  performing  what  colonial  companies  resi- 
dent in  England  had  hardly  been  able  to  achieve.  He 
planted  a  colony,  which  for  several  generations  descended 
as  a  lucrative  patrimony  to  his  heirs. 

Virginia  regarded  the  severing  of  her  territory  with       less, 
apprehension ;  and,  before  any  colonists  had  embarked 
under  the  charter  for  Maryland,  her  commissioners  in  Eng- 
land remonstrated  against  the  grant,  as  an  invasion  of  her 
commercial  rights,  an  infringement  on  her  domains,  and  a 
discouragement  to  her  planters.      In  all  the  business,  Straf- 
ford,  the  friend  of  the  father,  "  took  upon  himself  a  noble 
patronage  of"  Lord  Baltimore;  and  the  remonstrance 
was  in  vain.     The  privy  council  sustained  the  pro-    July  3. 
prietary  charter ;  they  left  the  claimants  of  the  Isle  of 
Kent  to  the  course  of  law  ;  at  the  same  time,  they  advised 
the  parties  to  an  amicable  adjustment  of  all  disputes,  and 
commanded  a  free  commerce  and  a  good   correspondence 
between  the  respective  colonies. 

Lord  Baltimore  was  unwilling  to  take  upon  himself  the 
sole  risk  of  colonizing  his  province ;  others  joined  with  him 


184  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  VII. 

in  the  adventure ;  and,  all  difficulties  being  overcome,  his 
two  brothers,  of  whom  Leonard  Calvert  was  appointed  his 
lieutenant,  "  with  very  near  twenty  other  gentlemen  of  very 
good  fashion,  two  or  three  hundred  laboring  men  well  pro- 
vided in  all  things,"  and  Father  White  with  one  or  two  more 
Jesuit  missionaries,  embarked  themselves  for  the  voyage 
in  the  good  ship  "Ark,"  of  three  hundred  tons  and  up- 
ward, and  a  pinnace  called  the  "  Dove,"  of  about  fifty 
Nov3^  tons.  On  the  twenty-second  of  November,  1633,  the 
ships,  having  been  placed  by  the  priests  under  the 
protection  of  God,  the  Virgin  Mary,  St.  Ignatius,  and  all 
the  other  guardian  angels  of  Maryland,  weighed  anchor  from 
the  Isle  of  Wight.  As  they  sailed  by  way  of  the  Fortu- 
nate Islands,  Barbados,  and  St.  Christopher's,  it  was 
Fe^*24.  not  until  the  last  week  in  February,  of  the  following 
year,  that  they  arrived  at  Point  Comfort,  in  Virginia ; 
where,  in  obedience  to  the  express  letters  of  King  Charles, 
they  were  welcomed  with  courtesy  and  humanity  by  Harvey. 
The  governor  offered  them  what  Virginia  had  obtained  so 
slowly,  and  at  so  much  cost,  from  England :  cattle,  and  hogs, 
and  poultry ;  two  or  three  hundred  stocks  already  grafted 
with  apples  and  pears,  peaches  and  cherries ;  and  promised 
that  the  new  plantations  should  not  want  the  open  way  to 
furnish  themselves  from  the  old.  Claybome,  who  had  ex- 
plored the  Chesapeake  Bay  and  had  established  a  lucrative 
trade  in  furs  from  Kent  and  Palmer's  Isles,  also  appeared, 
predicting  the  hostility  of  the  natives;  and  was  told  that 
he  was  now  a  member  of  Maryland,  and  must  relinquish  all 
other  dependence. 

After  a  week's  kind  entertainment,  the  adventurers 
bent  their  course  to  the  north  and  entered  the  Poto- 
mac. "A  larger  or  more  beautiful  river,"  writes  Father 
White,  "  I  have  never  seen ;  the  Thames,  compared  with  it, 
can  scarce  be  considered  a  rivulet;  no  undergrowth  chokes 
the  beautiful  groves  on  each  of  its  solid  banks,  so  that  you 
might  drive  a  four-horse  chariot  among  the  trees."  Under  an 
island,  which  can  now  hardly  be  recognised  with  certainty,  the 
"Ark"  came  to  an  anchor ;  while  Calvert,  with  the  "  Dove  " 
and  another  pinnace,  ascended  the  stream.  At  about  forty- 


1634.  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  185 

seven  leagues  above  the  mouth  of  the  river,  he  came  upon 
the  village  of  Piscataqua,  an  Indian  settlement  nearly  op- 
posite Mount  Vernon,  where  he  found  an  Englishman,  who 
had  lived  many  years  among  the  Indians  as  a  trader  and 
spoke  their  language  well.  With  him  for  an  interpreter,  a 
parley  was  held  with  them.  To  the  request  for  leave  for  the 
new  comers  to  sit  down  in  his  country,  the  chieftain  of  the 
tiibe  would  neither  bid  them  go  nor  stay ;  "  they  might  use 
their  own  discretion."  It  did  not  seem  safe  to  plant  so  far 
in  the  interior.  Taking  with  him  the  trader,  Calvert  went 
down  the  river,  examining  the  creeks  and  estuaries  nearer 
the  Chesapeake ;  he  entered  the  branch  which  is  now  called 
St.  Mary's ;  and,  about  four  leagues  from  its  junction  with 
the  Potomac,  he  anchored  at  the  Indian  town  of  Yoaco- 
moco.  The  native  inhabitants,  having  suffered  from  the 
superior  power  of  the  Susquehannahs,  who  occupied  the 
district  between  that  river  and  the  Delaware  Bay,  had 
already  resolved  to  remove  into  places  of  more  security; 
and  many  of  them  had  already  begun  to  migrate.  It  was 
easy,  by  presents  of  cloth  and  axes,  of  hoes  and  knives, 
to  gain  their  good-will,  and  to  purchase  their  rights  to  the 
soil  which  they  were  preparing  to  abandon.  With  mutual 
promises  of  friendship  and  peace,  they  readily  gave  con- 
sent that  the  English  should  immediately  occupy  one  half 
of  their  town ;  and,  after  the  harvest,  the  other. 

On  the  twenty-fifth,  the  day  of  the  Annunciation,  in  Mar*26 
the  island  under  which  their  great  ship,  the  "  Ark," 
lay  moored,  a  Jesuit  priest  who  was  of  the  party  offered  the 
sacrifice  of  the  mass,  which  in  that  region  of  the  world  had 
never  been  celebrated  before.  This  being  ended,  he  and  his 
assistants  took  upon  their  shoulders  the  great  cross  which 
they  had  hewn  from  a  tree ;  and,  going  in  procession  to  the 
place  that  had  been  designated,  the  governor  and  other 
Catholics  and  some  Protestants  as  well  participating  in  the 
ceremony,  they  erected  it  as  a  trophy  to  Christ  the  Saviour, 
while  the  litany  of  the  holy  cross  was  chanted  humbly  on 
their  bended  knees. 

Upon  the  twenty-seventh,  the  emigrants,  of  whom  Mar.  27. 
by  far  the  larger  number  were  Protestants,  took  quiet 


186  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VII. 

possession   of  the  land  which   the   governor  had  bought. 

Before  many  days,  Sir  John  Harvey  arrived  on  a 
test.  visit ;  the  red  chiefs,  also,  came  to  Avelcome  or  to 

watch  the  emigrants,  and  were  so  well  received  that 
they  resolved  to  give  perpetuity  to  a  mutual  league  of 
amity.  The  Indian  women  taught  the  wives  of  the  new 
comers  to  make  bread  of  maize ;  the  warriors  of  the  tribe 
instructed  the  huntsmen  how  rich  were  the  forests  of  Amer- 
ica in  game,  and  joined  them  in  the  chase.  Nor  did  the 
planters  cease  in  the  endeavor  to  remove  all  jealousy  out 
of  the  minds  of  the  natives,  and  at  last  they  were  able  to 
settle  with  them  a  very  firm  peace  and  friendship. 

As  they  had  come  into  possession  of  ground  already  sub- 
dued, they  at  once  planted  cornfields  and  gardens.  No  suf- 
ferings were  endured  ;  no  fears  of  want  arose  ;  the  founda- 
tion of  the  colony  of  Maryland  was  peacefully  and  happily 
laid ;  and  in  six  months  it  advanced  more  than  Virginia 
in  as  many  years.  The  proprietary  continued  with  great 
liberality  to  provide  every  thing  needed  for  its  comfort  and 
protection,  expending  twenty  thousand  pounds  sterling,  and 
his  associates  as  many  more.  But  far  more  memorable  was 
the  character  of  the  Maryland  institutions.  One  of  the  largest 
wigwams  was  allotted  to  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  who  relate 
that  the  first  chapel  in  Maryland  was  built  by  the  Indians. 
Of  the  Protestants,  though  they  seem  as  yet  to  have  been 
without  a  minister,  the  religious  rights  were  not  abridged. 
This  enjoyment  of  liberty  of  conscience  did  not  spring  from 
any  act  of  colonial  legislation,  nor  from  any  formal  and  gen- 
eral edict  of  the  governor,  nor  from  any  oath  as  yet  imposed 
by  instructions  of  the  proprietary.  English  statutes  were 
not  held  to  bind  the  colonies,  unless  they  especially  named 
them;  the  clause  which,  in  the  charter  for  Virginia,  ex- 
cluded from  that  colony  "  all  persons  suspected  to  affect  the 
superstitions  of  the  church  of  Rome,"  found  no  place  in  the 
charter  for  Maryland ;  and,  while  allegiance  was  held  to  be 
due,  there  was  no  requirement  of  the  oath  of  supremacy. 
Toleration  grew  up  in  the  province  silently,  as  a  custom  of 
the  land.  Through  the  benignity  of  the  administration,  no 
person  professing  to  believe  in  the  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ 


1635.  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  187 

was  permitted  to  be  molested  on  account  of  religion.  Roman 
Catholics,  who  were  oppressed  by  the  laws  of  England, 
were  sure  to  find  a  peaceful  asylum  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  Potomac ;  and  there,  too,  Protestants  were  shel- 
tered against  Protestant  intolerance.  From  the  first,  men 
of  foreign  birth  were  encouraged  to  plant,  and  enjoyed  equal 
advantages  with  those  of  the  English  and  Irish  nations. 

Such  were  the  beautiful  auspices  under  which  Maryland 
started  into  being ;  its  prosperity  and  peace  seemed  assured. 
But  no  sooner  had  the  allegiance  of  Clayborne's  settlement 
been  claimed  under  the  patent  of  Maryland,  than  he  inquired 
of  the  governor  and  council  of  Virginia  how  he  should  demean 
himself ;  and  was  answered  that,  as  the  question  was  unde- 
termined in  England,  they  knew  no  reason  why  they  should 
render  up  the  rights  of  the  Isle  of  Kent,  which  they  were 
bound  in  duty  to  maintain.  Fortified  by  this  decision  and 
by  the  tenor  of  letters  from  the  king,  he  continued  his  traffic 
as  before.  On  the  other  hand,  Lord  Baltimore,  in  Septem- 
ber, gave  orders  to  seize  him,  if  he  did  not  submit  to  his 
government ;  and  the  secretary  of  state  "  directed  Sir  John 
Harvey  to  continue  his  assistance  against  Clayborne's  mali- 
cious practices." 

In  February,  1635,  the  colony  was  convened  for  1635. 
legislation.  Probably  all  the  freemen  were  present,  Feb- 
in  a  strictly  popular  assembly.  The  laws  of  this  first  legis- 
lative body  of  Maryland  are  no  longer  extant ;  nor  do  we 
know  what  part  it  took  in  vindicating  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  province.  But  in  April,  1635,  the  pin-  Aprn. 
nace,  in  which  men  employed  by  Clayborne  had 
been  trafficking,  was  seized  by  a  party  from  St.  Mary's. 
Resenting  the  act,  he  sent  a  vessel  into  the  Chesapeake  to 
demand  the  restoration  of  his  captured  property.  On  the 
tenth  of  May,  a  skirmish  took  place  on  one  of  the  rivers 
of  the  eastern  shore,  south  of  Kent  Island.  The  Mary- 
landers,  with  the  loss  of  but  one  man,  slew  the  commander 
and  two  others  of  the  Virginians,  and  took  the  rest  pris- 
oners. 

Unable  to  continue  the  contest  by  force,  Clayborne  re- 
paired to  England  to  lay  his  case  before  the  king.  During 


188  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIL 

his  absence,  and  just  before  the  end  of  1637,  the  government 
of  Maryland  was  established  on  the  Isle  of  Kent, 
less.  In  the  following  January,  an  assembly  of  the  colony, 
in  which  Kent  Island  was  represented,  was  convened ; 
and  an  act  of  attainder  was  carried  against  him,  as  one  who 
had  been  indicted  for  piracy  and  murder  and  had  fled  from 
justice.  Thomas  Smith,  who  had  acted  as  his  officer,  could 
not  be  tried  by  a  jury,  for  there  was  no  law  that  reached 
his  case ;  he  was  therefore  called  to  the  bar  of  the  house, 
arraign  ed  upon  an  indictment  for  piracy,  and,  after  his  plea 
had  been  heard,  was  found  guilty  by  all  the  members  except 
one.  Sentence  was  pronounced  on  him  by  the  president, 
in  the  name  of  the  freemen;  all  his  property  except  the 
dower  of  his  wife  was  forfeited  ;  and  he  was  condemned  to 
be  hanged.  Then  did  the  prisoner  demand  his  clergy ;  but 
it  was  denied  by  the  president,  both  for  the  nature  "  of  his 
crime  and  that  it  was  demanded  after  judgment." 

In  England,  Clayborne  attempted  to  gain  a  hearing ;  and, 
partly  by  strong  representations,  still  more  by  the  influence 
of  Sir  William  Alexander,  succeeded,  for  a  season,  in  pro- 
curing the  favorable  disposition  of  Charles.  But,  when  the 
whole  affair  came  to  be  finally  referred  to  the  com- 
j^ii.  missioners  for  the  plantations,  it  was  found  that  the 
right  of  the  king  to  confer  the  soil  and  the  juris- 
diction of  Maryland  could  not  be  controverted;  that  the 
earlier  license  to  traffic  did  not  vest  in  Clayborne  any  rights 
which  were  valid  against  the  charter ;  and  therefore  that  the 
Isle  of  Kent  belonged  to  Lord  Baltimore,  who  alone  could 
permit  plantations  to  be  established,  or  commerce  with  the 
Indians  to  be  conducted,  within  his  territory. 

The  people  of  Maryland  were  not  content  with  vindicat- 
ing the  limits  of  their  province ;  they  were  jealous  of  their 
liberties.  Their  legislature  rejected  the  code  which  the 
proprietary,  as  if  holding  the  exclusive  privilege  of  propos- 
ing statutes,  had  prepared  for  their  government ;  and,  assert- 
ing their  equal  rights  of  legislation,  they,  in  their  turn, 
enacted  a  body  of  laws,  which  they  proposed  for  the  assent 
of  the  proprietary.  How  discreetly  they  proceeded  cannot 
now  be  known ;  for  the  laws,  which  were  then  enacted,  were 


1639.  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  189 

never  ratified,  and  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  provincial 
records. 

In  the  early  history  of  the  United  States,  nothing  leso. 
is  more  remarkable  than  the  uniform  attachment  of 
every  colony  to  political  franchises ;  and  popular  assemblies 
burst  everywhere  into  life,  with  a  consciousness  of  their  im- 
portance, and  an  immediate  efficiency.  The  first  assembly 
of  Maryland,  had  vindicated  the  jurisdiction  of  the  colony ; 
the  second  had  asserted  its  claims  to  original  legislation ;  the 
third  examined  its  obligations,  and,  though  its  acts  were  not 
carried  through  the  forms  essential  to  their  validity,  it  dis- 
played the  spirit  of  the  people  and  the  times  by  framing  a 
declaration  of  rights.  Acknowledging  allegiance  to  the  Eng- 
lish monarch  and  the  prerogatives  of  Lord  Baltimore,  it 
confirmed  to  all  Christian  inhabitants  of  Maryland,  slaves 
excepted,  all  the  liberties  which  an  Englishman  enjoyed  at 
home  by  virtue  of  the  common  or  statute  law ;  established 
a  system  of  representative  government ;  and  asserted  for 
their  general  assemblies  all  such  powers  as  were  exercised 
by  the  commons  of  England.  The  exception  of  slaves 
implies  that  negro  slavery  had  already  intruded  itself  into 
the  province.  At  this  session,  any  freeman,  who  had  not 
taken  part  in  the  election,  might  attend  in  person ;  hencefor- 
ward, the  governor  might  summon  his  friends  by  special 
writ ;  while  the  people  were  to  choose  as  many  delegates  as 
"the  freemen  should  think  good."  As  yet  there  was  no 
jealousy  of  power,  no  strife  for  place.  While  these  laws  pre- 
pared a  frame  of  government  for  future  generations,  we  are 
reminded  of  the  feebleness  of  the  state,  where  the  whole 
people  contributed  to  "  the  setting  up  of  a  water-mill." 

The  restoration  of  the  charter  of  the  London  company 
would  have  endangered  the  separate  existence  of  Maryland ; 
yet  we  have  seen  Virginia,  which  had  ever  been  jealous  of  the 
division  of  its  territory,  defeat  the  attempt  to  revive 
the  corporation.     In  October,  1640,  the  legislative       1^\ 
assembly  of  Maryland,  in  the  grateful  enjoyment  of 
happiness,  seasonably  guarded  the  tranquillity  of  the  prov- 
ince against  the  perplexities  of  an  "  interim,"  by  providing 
for  the  security  of  the  government  in  case  of  the  death 


190  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  VII. 

of  the  deputy  governor.  Commerce  was  fostered ;  and  to- 
bacco, the  staple  of  the  colony,  subjected  to  inspection. 
The  act  which  established  church  liberties  declares  that 
"holy  church,  within  this  province,  shall  have  and  enjoy  all 
her  rights,  liberties,  and  franchises,  wholly  and  without  blem- 
ish." This  enactment  of  a  clause  in  Magna  Charta,  cited  in 
the  preceding  century  by  some  of  the  separatists,  as  a  guar- 
antee of  their  religious  liberty,  was  practically  interpreted  as 
in  harmony  with  that  toleration  of  all  believers  in  the  divinity 
of  Jesus  Christ,  which  was  the  recognised  usage  of  the  land. 
Nor  was  it  long  before  the  inhabitants  acknowl- 

O 

Mar22i  edged  Lord  Baltimore's  great  charge  and  solicitude 
in  maintaining  the  government,  and  protecting  them 
in  their  persons,  rights,  and  liberties ;  and  therefore,  "  out  of 
desire  to  return  some  testimony  of  gratitude,"  they  granted 
"  such  a  subsidy  as  the  young  and  poor  estate  of  the  colony 
could  bear."  Ever  intent  on  advancing  the  interests  of  his 
colony,  the  proprietary  invited  the  Puritans  of  Massachu- 
setts to  emigrate  to  Maryland,  offering  them  lands  and 
privileges,  and  "  free  liberty  of  religion ; "  but  Gibbons, 
to  whom  he  had  forwarded  a  commission,  was  "  so  wholly 
tutored  in  the  New  England  discipline "  that  he  would 
not  advance  the  wishes  of  the  Irish  peer;  and  the  people 
were  not  tempted  to  desert  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts  for 
the  Chesapeake. 

The  aborigines,  alarmed  at  the  rapid  increase  of  the 
Europeans,  vexed  at  being  frequently  overreached  by  their 
cupidity,  commenced  hostilities ;  for  the  Indians,  ig- 
1i644.°  norant  of  the  remedy  of  redress,  always  plan  retalia- 
tion. After  a  war  of  frontier  aggressions,  marked  by 
no  decisive  events,  peace  was  re-established  with  them  on 
the  usual  terms  of  submission  and  promises  of  friendship, 
and  rendered  durable  by  the  prudent  legislation  of  the 
assembly  and  the  humanity  of  the  government.  Kidnap- 
ping them  was  made  a  capital  offence ;  the  sale  of  arms  to 
them  prohibited  as  a  felony;  and  the  pre-emption  of  the 
goil  reserved  to  the  proprietary. 

To  this  right  of  pre-emption  Lord  Baltimore  would  suffer 
no  exception.  The  Jesuits  had  obtained  a  grant  of  land 


1643.  COLONIZATION   OF  MARYLAND. 

from  an  Indian  chief;  the  proprietary,  "intent  upon  his 
own  affairs,  and  not  fearing  to  violate  the  immunities  of  the 
church,"  would  not  allow  that  it  was  valid,  and  persisted  in 
enforcing  against  Catholic  priests  the  necessity  of  obtain- 
ing his  consent  before  they  could  acquire  real  estate  in  his 
province  in  any  wise,  even  by  gift. 

In  April,  1642,  Clayborne  obtained  from  the  king  1042. 
a  patent  as  treasurer  of  Virginia  for  life ;  while  the 
proprietary  of  Maryland,  intent  on  preserving  his  patent, 
desired  carefully  to  avoid  a  collision  with  parliament.  In 
the  mixed  population  of  Maryland,  where  the  administration 
was  in  the  hands  of  Catholics  and  the  very  great  majority 
of  the  people  were  Protestants,  there  was  no  unity  of  sen- 
timent out  of  which  a  domestic  constitution  could  have 
harmoniously  risen.  At  a  time  when  the  commotions  in 
England  left  every  colony  in  America  almost  unheeded, 
and  Virginia  and  New  England  were  pursuing  a  course  of 
nearly  independent  legislation,  the  power  of  the  proprietary 
was  almost  as  feeble  as  that  of  the  king.  The  other  colo- 
nies took  advantage  of  the  period  to  secure  and  advance 
their  liberties :  in  Maryland,  the  effect  was  rather  to  encour- 
age insubordination;  the  government  vibrated  with  every 
change  in  the  political  condition  of  England. 

In  this  state  of  uncertainty,  Leonard  Calvert,  the  pro- 
prietary's   deputy,   repaired  to   England  to    take    counsel 
with  his  brother.     During  his  absence,  and  towards 
the  end  of  the  year  1643,  a  London  ship,  commis-       1643. 
sioned  by  parliament,  anchored  in  the  harbor  of  St. 
Mary's ;  and  Brent,  the  acting  governor,  under  a  general 
authority  from  the  king  at  Oxford,  but  with  an  indiscretion 
which  was  in  contrast  with  the  caution  of  the  proprietary, 
seized  the  ship,  and  tendered  to  its  crew  an  oath  against  the 
parliament.     Richard  Ingle,  the  commander,  having 
escaped,  in   January,   1644,   he   was   summoned  by       1644. 
proclamation  to   yield  himself  up,  while  witnesses 
were  sought  for  to  convict  him  of  treason.     The  new  com- 
mission to  Governor  Calvert  plainly  conceded  to  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  province  the  right  of  originating  laws.     It 
no  longer  required  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  king,  but  it 


192  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VII. 

exacted  from  every  grantee  of  land  an  oath  of  fidelity  to 
the  proprietary.  This  last  measure  proved  only  a  new  en- 
tanglement. 

In  September,  Calvert  returned  to  St.  Mary's  to  find 
the  colony  rent  by  factions,  and  Clayborne  still  restless  in 
asserting  his  claim  to  Kent  Island.  Escaping  by  way  of 
Jamestown  to  London,  Ingle  had  obtained  there  a  letter  of 
marque;  and,  without  any  other  authority,  reappearing  in 
Maryland,  he  raised  the  standard  of  parliament  against  the 
established  authorities;  made  away  with  the  records  and 
the  great  seal;  and,  by  the  aid  of  Protestants,  compelled 
the  governor  and  secretary,  with  a  few  of  their  devoted 
friends,  to  fly  to  Virginia.  Father  White  and  the  other 
Jesuit  missionaries  were  seized  and  shipped  to  England; 
an  oath  of  submission  was  tendered  to  the  inhabitants,  but 
it  was  not  subscribed  by  even  one  Catholic.  After  his  law- 
less proceedings,  which  wrought  for  the  colony  nothing  but 
confusion,  and  waste  of  property,  and  insurrectionary  mis- 
rule, Ingle  returned  to  England. 

A  fugitive  in  Virginia,  Calvert  asked  aid  of  that 

province.  Its  governor  and  council  "  could  send  him 
no  help ; "  but  they  invited  Clayborne  "  to  surcease  for  the 
present  all  intermeddling  with  the  government  of  the  Isle 

of  Kent."     Their  offer  to  act  as  umpires  was  not  ac- 

1646.  cepted.     Before  the  close  of  the  year  1646,  Calvert 
organized  a  force  strong  enough  to  make  a  descent 

1647.  upon  St.  Mary's  and  recover  the  province.    In  April, 
he,  in  person,  reduced  Kent  Island,  and  established 

Robert  Vaughan,  a  Protestant,  as  its  commander.   Tranquil- 
lity returned  with  his  resumption  of  power,  and  was 
1647.       confirmed  by  his  wise  clemency.    On  the  ninth  of  the 
following  June,  he  died ;  and  his  death  foreboded  for 
the  colony  new  disasters;  for,  during  the  troublous  times 
which  followed,  no  one  of  his  successors  had  his  prudence 
or  his  ability.   His  immediate  successor  was  Thomas  Greene, 
a  Roman  Catholic. 

Meantime,  the  committee  of  plantations  at  London,  act- 
ing on  a  petition,  which  stated  truly  that  the  government 
of  Maryland,  since  the  first  settlement  of  that  province, 


1648.  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  193 

had  been  in  the  hands  of  recusants,  and  that  under  a  com- 
mission from  Oxford  it  had  seized  upon  a  ship  which  de- 
rived its  commission  from  parliament,  reported  both  Lord 
Baltimore  and  his  deputy  unfit  to  be  continued  in  their 
charges,  and  recommended  that  parliament  should  settle 
the  government  of  the  plantation  in  the  hands  of  Prot- 
estants. 

This  petition  was  read  in  the  house  of  lords,  in 
the  last  week  of  the  year  1645;  but  neither  then, 
nor  in  rhe  two  following  years,  were  definite  meas- 
ures adopted  by  parliament,  and  the  politic  Lord  Balti- 
more had  ample  time  to  prepare  his  own  remedies.  To 
appease  the  parliament,  he  removed  Greene,  and  in 
August,  1648,  appointed  in  his  place  William  Stone,  j^ug!'6. 
a  Protestant,  of  the  church  of  England,  formerly  a 
sheriff  in  Virginia,  who  had  promised  to  lead  a  large  num- 
ber of  emigrants  into  Maryland.  For  his  own  security,  he 
bound  his  Protestant  lieutenant,  or  chief  governor,  by  the 
most  stringent  oath  to  maintain  his  rights  and  dominion  as 
absolute  lord  and  proprietary  of  the  province  of  Maryland ; 
and  the  oath,  which  was  devised  in  1648,  and  not  before, 
went  on  in  these  words  :  "  I  do  further  swear  I  will  not  by 
myself,  nor  any  other  person,  directly  trouble,  molest,  or 
discountenance  any  person  whatsoever  in  the  said  province, 
professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ ;  and,  in  particular,  no 
Roman  Catholic,  for  or  in  respect  of  his  or  her  religion,  nor 
his  or  her  free  exercise  thereof  within  the  said  province,  so 
as  they  be  not  unfaithful  to  his  said  lordship,  or  molest  or 
conspire  against  the  civil  government  established  under  him." 
To  quiet  and  unite  the  colony,  all  offences  of  the  late  rebel- 
lion were  effaced  by  a  general  amnesty ;  and,  at  the  instance 
of  the  Catholic  proprietary,  the  Protestant  governor,  Stone, 
and  his  council  of  six,  composed  equally  of  Catholics  and 
Protestants,  and  the  representatives  of  the  people  of  Mary- 
land, of  whom  five  were  Catholics,  at  a  general  session 
of  the  assembly,  held  in  April,  1649,  placed  upon  ^pr^zi. 
their  statvite-book  an  act  for  the  religious  freedom 
which,  by  the  unbroken  usage  of  fifteen  years,  had  become 
sacred  on  their  soil.  "  And  whereas  the  enforcing  of  the 

VOL.  I.  13 


194  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  VH 

conscience  in  matters  of  religion,"  such  was  the  sublime 
tenor  of  a  part  of  the  statute,  "  hath  frequently  fallen  out 
to  be  of  dangerous  consequence  in  those  commonwealths 
where  it  has  been  practised,  and  for  the  more  quiet  and 
peaceable  government  of  this  province,  and  the  better  to 
preserve  mutual  love  and  amity  among  the  inhabitants,  no 
person  within  this  province,  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus 
Christ,  shall  be  in  any  ways  troubled,  molested,  or  discoun- 
tenanced, for  his  or  her  religion,  or  in  the  free  exercise 
thereof."  Thus  did  the  star  of  religious  freedom  harbinger 
the  day ;  though,  as  it  first  gleamed  above  the  horizon,  its 
light  was  colored  and  obscured  by  the  mists  and  exhala- 
tions of  morning.  The  Independents  of  England,  in  a  paper 
which  they  called  "the  agreement  of  the  people,"  expressed 
their  desire  to  grant  to  all  believers  in  Jesus  Christ  the 
free  exercise  of  their  religion;  but  the  Long  Parliament 
rejected  their  prayer,  and  in  May,  1648,  passed  an  ordi- 
nance, not  to  be  paralleled  among  Protestants  for  its  atroc- 
ity, imposing  death  as  the  penalty  for  holding  any  one  of 
eight  enumerated  heresies.  Not  conforming  wholly  to  the 
precedent,  the  clause  for  liberty  in  Maryland,  which  ex- 
tended only  to  Christians,  was  introduced  by  the  proviso 
that  "whatsoever  person  shall  blaspheme  God,  or  shall 
deny  or  reproach  the  Holy  Trinity,  or  any  of  the  three 
persons  thereof,  shall  be  punished  with  death."  Nowhere 
in  the  United  States  is  religious  opinion  now  deemed  a 
proper  subject  for  penal  enactments.  The  only  fit  punish- 
ment for  error  is  refutation :  God  needs  no  avenger  in  man. 
The  foolhardy  levity  of  shallow  infidelity  proceeds  from  a 
morbid  passion  for  notoriety,  or  the  malice  that  finds  pleas- 
ure in  annoyance :  the  laws  of  society  should  do  no  more 
than  reprove  the  breach  of  its  decorum.  Blasphemy  is  the 
crime  of  despair.  One  hopeless  sufferer  commits  suicide  ; 
another  curses  Divine  Providence  for  the  evil  which  is  in 
the  world,  and  of  which  he  cannot  solve  the  mystery. 
The  best  medicine  for  intemperate  grief  is  compassion; 
the  keenest  rebuke  for  ribaldry,  contempt. 

But  the  design  of  the  law  of  Maryland  was  undoubtedly 
to  protect  freedom  of  conscience ;  and,  some  years  after  it 


1650.  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  195 

had  been  confirmed,  the  apologist  of  Lord  Baltimore  could 
assert  that  his  government,  in  conformity  with  his  strict 
and  repeated  injunctions,  had  never  given  disturbance  to 
any  person  in  Maryland  for  matter  of  religion;  that  the 
colonists  enjoyed  freedom  of  conscience,  not  less  than  free- 
dom of  person  and  estate.  The  disfranchised  friends  of 
prelacy  from  Massachusetts,  and  the  exiled  Puritans  from 
Virginia,  were  welcomed  to  equal  liberty  of  conscience  and 
political  rights  by  the  Roman  Catholic  proprietary  of  Mary- 
land ;  and  the  usage  of  the  province  from  its  foundation  was 
now  confirmed  by  its  statutes.  The  attractive  influence  of 
this  liberality  for  the  province  appeared  immediately :  a  body 
of  Puritans  or  Independents  in  Virginia,  whom  Sir  William 
Berkeley  had  ordered  to  leave  that  province  for  their  non- 
conformity, negotiated  successfully  with  the  proprietary  for 
lands  in  Maryland ;  and,  before  the  end  of  the  year  1649, 
the  greater  part  of  the  congregation  planted  themselves  on 
the  banks  of  the  Severn.  To  their  place  of  refuge,  now 
known  as  Annapolis,  they  gave  the  name  of  Providence  ; 
there  "  they  sat  down  joyfully,  and  cheerfully  followed  their 
vocations." 

An  equal  union  prevailed  between  all  branches  of  1650 
the  government  in  explaining  and  confirming  the  April, 
civil  liberties  of  the  colony.  In  1642,  Robert  Vaughan,  in 
the  name  of  the  rest  of  the  burgesses,  had  desired  that  the 
house  might  be  separated,  and  thus  a  negative  secured  to 
the  representatives  of  the  people.  Before  1649,  this  change 
had  taken  place ;  and  in  1650  it  was  established  by  an  enact- 
ment. The  dangerous  prerogative  of  employing  martial 
law  was  limited  to  the  precincts  of  the  camp  and  the 
garrison ;  and  a  perpetual  act  declared  that  no  tax  1650. 
should  be  levied  upon  the  freemen  of  the  province, 
except  by  the  vote  of  their  deputies  in  a  general  assembly. 
Well  might  the  freemen  of  Maryland  place  upon  their  records 
an  acknowledgment  of  gratitude  to  their  proprietary,  "  as  a 
memorial  to  all  posterities,"  and  a  pledge  that  succeeding 
generations  would  faithfully  "remember"  his  care  and  indus- 
try in  advancing  "  the  peace  and  happiness  of  the  colony." 

The   revolutions  in  England   could   not  but   affect  the 


COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VII. 

destinies  of  the  colonies ;  and,  while  New  England  and 
Virginia  vigorously  advanced  their  liberties  under  the  salu- 
tary neglect,  Maryland  was  involved  in  the  miseries  of  a 
disputed  government.  Doubts  were  raised  as  to  the  author- 
ity to  which  obedience  was  due;  and  the  government  of 
benevolence,  good  order,  and  toleration,  was,  by  the  force 
of  circumstances,  soon  abandoned  to  the  misrule  of  bigotry 
and  the  anarchy  of  a  disputed  sovereignty.  "WTien  the 
throne  and  the  peerage  had  been  subverted  in  England,  it 
might  be  questioned  whether  the  mimic  monarchy  of  Lord 
Baltimore  should  be  permitted  to  continue  ;  and  scrupulous 
Puritans  hesitated  to  take  an  unqualified  oath  of  fealty,  with 
which  they  might  be  unable  to  comply.  Englishmen  were 
no  longer  lieges  of  a  sovereign,  but  members  of  a  common- 
wealth ;  and,  but  for  Baltimore,  Maryland  would  equally 
enjoy  republican  liberty.  Great  as  was  the  temptation  to 
assert  independence,  it  would  not  have  prevailed,  could  the 
peace  of  the  province  have  been  maintained.  But  who, 
it  might  well  be  asked,  was  the  sovereign  of  Maryland? 
"  Beauty  and  extraordinary  goodness "  were  her  dowry ; 
and  she  was  claimed  by  four  separate  aspirants.  Virginia, 
pushed  on  by  Clayborne,  was  ready  to  revive  its  rights  to 
jurisdiction  beyond  the  Potomac ;  Charles  II.,  incensed 
against  Lord  Baltimore  for  his  adhesion  to  the  rebels  and 
his  toleration  of  schismatics,  had  issued  a  commission  as 
governor  to  Sir  "William  Davenant;  Stone  was  the  active 
deputy  of  Lord  Baltimore  ;  and  the  Long  Parliament  pre- 
pared to  intervene. 

1650  In  the  ordinance  for  the  reduction  of  the  rebellious 

colonies,  Maryland   was   not  included.     Charles   II. 
had  been  inconsiderately  proclaimed  by  Greene,  while  act- 
ing  as  governor  during  an  absence  of  Stone  in  Virginia  ; 
but  the  proclamation  was   disavowed,  and  assurances  had 
been  given  of  the  fidelity  of  the  proprietary  to  the  common- 
wealth.    But  the  popish  monarchical  Baltimore  had 
Sept.      wakeful  opponents.    In  the  instructions  to  the  parlia- 
mentary commissioners,  the  name  of  Maryland  twice 
found  a  place,  and  at  the  proprietary's  representation  was 
twice  struck  out;  yet,  in  the  last  draft,  they  were,  by 


1652.  COLONIZATION  OF  MARYLAND.  197 

some  unknown  means,  empowered  to  reduce  "  all  the     1652. 
plantations  within  the  Bay  of  the  Chesapeake."    Ben- 
nett and  Clayborne  accordingly  entered  the  province. 

In  the  settlement  with  Virginia,  we  have  seen  that  they 
aimed  at  reannexing  the  territory  of  Maryland  to  that  col- 
ony ;  but  they  dared  not  of  themselves  enforce  that  agree- 
ment. The  offer  was  therefore  made,  that  the  proprietary's 
officers  should  remain  in  their  places,  if,  without  infringing 
his  just  rights,  they  would  conform  to  the  laws  of  the  com- 
monwealth of  England  in  point  of  government ;  but  they 
refused  to  issue  forth  writs  in  the  name  of  the  Keepers  of 
the  Liberty  of  England,  saying  "  they  could  not  do  it  with- 
out breach  of  their  trust  and  oath."  Thereupon,  Bennett 
and  his  associate  took  possession  of  the  commissions  of 
Stone  and  his  council,  declared  them  to  be  null  and  void, 
and  of  their  own  authority  appointed  an  executive  council 
to  direct  the  affairs  of  Maryland.  For  the  following  June, 
an  assembly  was  to  be  summoned,  of  which  the  burgesses 
were  to  be  chosen  only  by  freemen  who  had  taken  the  en- 
gagement to  the  commonwealth  of  England,  as  established 
without  house  of  lords  or  king. 

The  assembly  of  Virginia,  which  met  at  James  City  on 
the  last  day  of  April,  did  not  give  effect  to  the  article  restor- 
ing its  ancient  bounds,  but  awaited  instructions  from  the  par- 
liament of  England.  After  organizing  its  government,  the 
commissioners,  who  had  attended  the  session,  returned  to 
Maryland ;  and  there,  conforming  to  the  manifest  desire  of 
the  inhabitants,  they  reinstated  Stone  as  governor,  with  a 
council  of  which  three  at  least  were  the  friends  of  Lord 
Baltimore,  on  no  other  condition  than  their  acquiescence  in 
what  had  been  done.  The  government  thus  instituted  "  be- 
ing to  the  liking  of  the  people,"  the  calling  of  an  assembly 
was  postponed.  The  restoration  of  Kent  Island  to  Clay- 
borne  was  aimed  at  indirectly  by  a  treaty  with  the  Susque- 
hannahs,  from  whom  his  original  title  was  derived. 

In  England,  Lord  Baltimore  was  roused  to  the  utmost 
efforts  to  preserve  his  province.  He  gave  reasons  of  state  to 
show  the  importance  of  not  reuniting  it  to  Virginia  to  the 
prejudice  of  his  patent.  He  even  sought  to  strengthen  his 


198  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VII. 

case  by  dwelling  on  the  monarchical  tendencies  of 
Aug.       Virginia,  and  holding  up  Maryland  and  New  Eng- 
land as  "  the  only  two  provinces  that  did  not  declare 
against  the  parliament."     His  argument  was  supported  by 
a  petition  from  himself  and  his  associate  adventurers,  and 
from  traders  and  planters  in  Maryland.     The  Long  Parlia- 
ment referred  the  question  of  bounds  to  their  committee  of 
the  navy,  who  had  power  to  send  for  persons  and 
Dec.  si.  papers.     On  the  last  day  of  the  year,  that  committee 
made  an  elaborate  and  impartial  report ;  but,  before 
the  controversy  could  be  decided,  the  Long  Parliament  was 
turned  out  of  doors. 

The  dissolution  of  the  Long  Parliament  threatened 
April.  a  change  in  the  political  condition  of  Maryland.  It 
was  argued  that  the  only  authority  under  which  Ben- 
nett and  Clayborne  had  acted  had  expired  with  the 
1654.  body  from  which  it  was  derived.  In  February,  1654, 
Stone  required  by  proclamation  an  oath  of  fidelity  to 
the  proprietary,  as  the  condition  of  grants  of  lands.  The 
housekeepers  of  Anne  Arundel  county  promptly  objected 
to  the  oath ;  so  did  Francis  Preston  and  sixty  others,  and 
they  protested  against  the  restoration  of  the  old  form  of 
government.  Bennett  and  Clayborne  bade  them  stand  fast 
by  the  form  which  the  commissioners  had  established. 
About  the  middle  of  July,  though  Stone  had  in  May  pro- 
claimed Cromwell  as  lord  protector,  fired  salutes  in  his 
honor,  and  commemorated  the  solemnity  by  grants  of  par- 
don, Bennett  and  Clayborne,  then  governor  and  secretary 
of  Virginia,  came  to  Maryland,  and  raised  as  soldiers  the 
inhabitants  on  the  Patuxent  River,  with  those  of  Anne 
Arundel  and  of  the  Isle  of  Kent,  to  take  the  government 
out  of  his  hands.  The  party  which  supported  him  consisted 
in  part  of  Protestants,  and  he  prepared  himself  for  defence. 
"  But  those  few  papists  that  were  in  Maryland,  for  indeed 
they  were  but  few,"  so  writes  one  of  their  friends,  "  impor- 
tunately persuaded  Governor  Stone  not  to  fight,  lest  the  cry 
against  the  papists,  if  any  hurt  were  done,  would  be  so 
great  that  many  mischiefs  would  ensue,  wholly  referring 
themselves  to  the  will  of  God  and  the  lord  protector's  de- 


1655.  COLONIZATION   OF  MARYLAND.  199 

termination."  Yielding  to  their  advice  against  that  of  his 
Protestant  friends,  Stone  surrendered  his  commission  into 
their  hands  ;  and,  under  compulsion,  pledged  himself  in 
writing  to  submit  to  such  government  as  should  be  set  over 
the  province  by  the  commissioners  in  the  name  of  the  lord 
protector.  Two  days  after  his  resignation,  Bennett  and 
Clayborne  appointed  Captain  "William  Fuller  and  nine  oth- 
ers commissioners  for  governing  Maryland.  They  were  en- 
joined to  summon,  for  the  next  October,  an  assembly,  for 
which  all  who  had  borne  arms  against  the  parliament,  or 
professed  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  were  disabled  to 
vote  or  to  be  elected. 

Parties  became  identified  with  religious  sects  ;  and  Mary- 
land itself  was  the  prize  for  which  they  contended.  A  new 
assembly,  representing  a  faction,  not  the  whole  people, 
coming  together  at  Patuxent,  acknowledged  the  au-  Q^" 
thority  of  Cromwell;  but  it  also  disfranchised  the 
whole  Romish  party.  Following  the  precedent  established 
by  an  ordinance  of  the  Long  Parliament,  it  confirmed  the 
liberty  of  religion,  provided  the  liberty  were  not  extended 
to  "popery,  prelacy,  or  licentiousness"  of  opinion.  The 
cedar  and  the  myrtle  and  the  oil-tree  might  no  longer  be 
planted  in  the  wilderness  together. 

When  the  proprietary  heard  of  these  proceedings,  he  re- 
proved his  lieutenant  for  want  of  firmness.  The  pretended 
assembly  was  esteemed  "  illegal,  mutinous,  and  usurped ; " 
and  his  officers,  under  the  powers  which  the  charter  conferred, 
prepared  to  vindicate  his  supremacy.  Towards  the 
end  of  January,  on  the  receipt  of  news  by  a  ship  from  1656. 
London,  it  was  noised  abroad  that  his  patent  was 
upheld  by  the  protector  ;  and  Stone,  pleading  that  his  writ- 
ten resignation  to  the  ten  commissioners  was  invalid,  because 
it  had  been  extorted  from  him  by  force,  began  to  issue 
orders  for  the  restoration  of  his  authority.  Papists  and 
friendly  Protestants  received  authority  to  levy  men ;  and 
the  leaders  of  this  new  appeal  to  arms  were  able  to  surprise 
and  get  possession  of  the  provincial  records.  They 
marched  from  Patuxent  towards  Anne  Arundel,  the  Mar.  28. 
chief  seat  of  the  republicans.  The  inhabitants  of 


200  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VII. 

Providence  and  their  partisans  gathered  together  with 
superior  zeal  and  courage.  Aided  by  the  "  Golden  Lyon," 
an  English  ship  which  happened  then  to  be  in  the  waters 
of  the  Severn,  they  attacked  and  discomfited  the  party  of 
Stone.  After  the  skirmish,  the  governor,  upon  quarter 
given  him,  yielded  himself  and  his  company  as  prisoners  ; 
but,  two  or  three  days  after,  the  victors  by  a  council  of  war 
condemned  him,  his  councillors,  and  some  others,  in  all  ten 
in  number,  to  be  shot.  Eltonhead,  one  of  the  condemned, 
appealed  to  Cromwell,  but  in  vain  ;  and  sentence  was  pres- 
ently executed  upon  him  and  three  others.  Of  the  four, 
three  were  Roman  Catholics.  The  remaining  six,  some 
on  the  way  to  execution,  were  saved  "  by  the  begging  of 
good  women  and  friends  "  who  chanced  to  be  there,  or  by 
the  soldiers ;  it  was  to  the  intercession  of  the  latter  that 
Governor  Stone  owed  his  life.  Rushing  into  the  houses  of 
the  Jesuits,  men  demanded  "  the  impostors,"  as  they  called 
them ;  but  the  fathers  escaped  to  hiding-places  in  Virginia. 
A  friend  to  Lord  Baltimore,  then  in  the  province,  begged 
of  the  protector  no  other  boon  than  that  he  would  "  con- 
descend to  settle  the  country  by  declaring  his  determinate 
will;"  and  yet  the  same  causes  which  led  Cromwell  to 
neglect  the  internal  concerns  of  Virginia  compelled  him 
to  pay  but  little  attention  to  the  disturbances  in  Maryland. 
On  the  one  hand,  he  respected  the  rights  of  property  of 
Lord  Baltimore  ;  on  the  other,  he  "  would  not  have  a  stop 
put  to  the  proceedings  of  the  commissioners  who  were 
authorized  to  settle  the  civil  government."  The  right  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  Maryland  remained,  therefore,  a  disputed 
question. 

1656.  In  July>  1656,  Lord  Baltimore  commissioned  Josiah 
July  10.  Fendall  as  his  lieutenant,  and,  before  the  end  of  the 
year,  sent  over  his  brother  Philip  as  councillor  and  principal 
secretary  of  the  province.  The  ten  men  none  the  less  con- 
tinued to  exercise  authority ;  and,  "  for  his  dangerousness," 
they  held  Fendall  under  arrest,  until  in  the  face  of  the  whole 
court  he  took  an  oath  not  to  disturb  their  government, 
but  to  await  a  final  decision  from  England.  To 
1657.  England,  therefore,  he  sailed  the  next  year,  that  he 


1660.  COLONIZATION  OF  MAEYLAND.  201 

might  consult  with  Baltimore,  leaving  Barber,  a  former  mem- 
ber of  Cromwell's  household,  as  his  deputy.  Still  the  pro- 
tector, by  reason  "  of  his  great  affairs,"  had  not  leisure  to 
consider  the  report  of  the  commissioners  for  trade  on  the 
affairs  of  Maryland.  At  last,  in  November,  1657,  Lord  Bal- 
timore, by  "the  friendly  endeavors  of  Edward  Digges," 
negotiated  with  Bennett  and  Matthews,  all  being  then  in 
England,  an  agreement  for  the  recovery  of  his  province. 
The  proprietary  covenanted  so  far  to  waive  his  right  of 
jurisdiction  as  to  leave  the  settlement  of  past  offences  and 
differences  to  the  disposal  of  the  protector  and  his  council ; 
to  grant  the  land  claims  of  "  the  people  in  opposition,"  with- 
out requiring  of  them  an  oath  of  fidelity,  but  only  some 
engagement  for  his  support ;  and,  lastly,  he  promised  for 
himself  never  to  consent  to  a  repeal  "  of  the  law  whereby 
all  persons  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus  Christ  have  free- 
dom of  conscience  there." 

Returning  to   his  government  with    instructions, 
Fendall,  in  the  following  March,  held  an  interview    M^^ 
with  Fuller,  Preston,  and  the  other  commissioners  at 
St.  Leonards,  when  the  agreement  was  carried  into  effect. 
The  Puritans  were  further  permitted  to  retain  their  arms, 
and  were  assured  of  indemnity  for  their  actions.     The  pro- 
ceedings of  the  assemblies  and  the  courts  of  justice,  since 
the  year  1652,  in  so  far  as  they  related  to  questions  of  prop- 
erty, were  confirmed. 

The  death  of  Cromwell  left  the  condition  of  England  un- 
certain, and  might  well  diffuse  gloom  through  the  counties 
of  Maryland.  For  ten  years  the  unhappy  province  had 
been  distracted  by  dissensions,  of  which  the  root  had  con- 
sisted in  the  claims  that  Baltimore  had  always  asserted, 
and  had  never  made  good.  Did  new  revolutions  await  the 
colony,  new  strifes  with  Virginia,  the  protector,  the  pro- 
prietary, the  king  ?  "Wearied  with  long  convulsions,  a  gen- 
eral assembly  saw  no  security  but  in  asserting  the  power  of 
the  people,  and  constituting  the  government  on  the  expres- 
sion of  their  will.  Accordingly,  on  the  twelfth  of 
March,  1660,  just  one  day  before  that  memorable  M^ia, 
session  of  Virginia,  when  the  people  of  the  Ancient 


202  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VII. 

Dominion  adopted  a  similar  system  of  independent  legisla- 
tion, the  representatives  of  Maryland,  meeting  in  the  house 
of  Robert  Slye,  voted  themselves  a  lawful  assembly,  without 
dependence  on  any  other  power  in  the  province.  The 
burgesses  of  Virginia  assumed  to  themselves  the  election 
of  the  council ;  the  burgesses  of  Maryland  refused  to  ac- 
knowledge the  rights  of  the  body  claiming  to  be  an  upper 
house.  In  Virginia,  Berkeley  yielded  to  the  public  will ;  in 
Maryland,  Fendall  permitted  the  power  of  the  people  to  be 
proclaimed.  The  representatives  of  Maryland,  having  thus 
settled  the  government,  independent  of  their  proprietary 
and  of  his  governor  and  council,  and  hoping  for  tranquillity 
after  years  of  storms,  passed  an  act  making  it  felony  to  dis- 
turb the  order  which  they  had  established. 

Thus  was  Maryland,  like  Virginia,  at  the  epoch  of  the 
restoration,  in  full  possession  of  liberty,  by  the  practical 
exercise  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people.  Like  Vii'ginia, 
it  had  so  nearly  completed  its  institutions  that,  till  the  epoch 
of  its  final  separation  from  England,  it  hardly  made  any  fur- 
ther advances  towards  freedom  and  independence. 

Men  love  liberty,  even  if  it  be  turbulent ;  and  the  colony 

had  increased,  and  flourished,  and  grown  rich,  in  spite 
1660.  of  domestic  dissensions.  Its  population,  in  1GGO,  is 

variously  estimated  at  twelve  thousand  and  at  eight 
thousand ;  the  latter  number  is  probably  nearer  the  truth. 
The  country  was  dear  to  its  inhabitants.  There  they  de- 
sired to  spend  the  remnant  of  their  lives,  there  to  make 
their  graves. 


CHAP.  VITL  THE  PILGRIMS.  203 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    PILGRIMS. 

THE  settlement  of  New  England  was  a  result  of  the 
Reformation ;  not  of  the  contest  between  the  new  opinions 
and  the  authority  of  Rome,  but  of  implacable  differences 
between  Protestant  dissenters  and  the  established  Anglican 
church. 

Who  will  venture  to  measure  the  consequences  of  actions 
by  the  humility  or  the  remoteness  of  their  origin  ?  The 
Power  which  enchains  the  destinies  of  states,  overruling  the 
decisions  of  sovereigns  and  the  forethought  of  statesmen, 
often  deduces  the  greatest  events  from  the  least  consid- 
ered causes.  A  Genoese  adventurer,  discovering  America, 
changed  the  commerce  of  the  world ;  an  obscure  German, 
inventing  the  printing-press,  rendered  possible  the  universal 
diffusion  of  increased  intelligence ;  an  Augustine  monk, 
denouncing  indulgences,  introduced  a  schism  in  religion, 
and  changed  the  foundations  of  European  politics ;  a  young 
French  refugee,  skilled  alike  in  theology  and  civil  law,  in 
the  duties  of  magistrates  and  the  dialectics  of  religious  con- 
troversy, entering  the  republic  of  Geneva,  and  conforming 
its  ecclesiastical  discipline  to  the  principles  of  republican 
simplicity,  established  a  party,  of  which  Englishmen  became 
members,  and  New  England  the  asylum.  The  enfranchise- 
ment of  the  mind  from  religious  despotism  led  directly 
to  inquiries  into  the  nature  of  civil  government ;  and  the 
doctrines  of  popular  liberty,  which  sheltered  their  infancy 
in  the  wildernesses  of  the  newly  discovered  continent,  within 
the  short  space  of  two  centuries  have  infused  themselves 
into  the  life-blood  of  every  rising  state  from  Labrador  to 
Chili ;  have  erected  outposts  on  the  Oregon  and  in  Liberia  ; 
and,  making  a  proselyte  of  enlightened  France,  have  dis- 


204  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

turbed  all  the  ancient  governments  of  Europe,  by  awakening 
the  public  mind  to  resistless  action,  from  the  shores  of 
Portugal  to  the  palaces  of  the  czars. 

Before  the  joint  incorporation  of  the  London  and  Ply- 
mouth companies  for  Virginia,  Sir  Ferdinando  Gor- 

1606.  ges,  the  governor  of  Plymouth,  and  Sir  John  Popham, 
the  chief  justice  of  England,  had  agreed  together  to 

send  out  each  a  ship  to  begin  a  plantation  in  the  region 
which  Waymouth  had  explored.  Chalons,  the  captain  em- 
ployed by  Gorges,  in  violation  of  his  instructions,  took 
the  southern  passage,  and  was  carried  by  the  trade-winds 
even  to  Porto  Rico.  As  he  turned  to  the  north,  he  was 
captured  by  the  Spanish  fleet  from  Havana.  The  tall  and 
well-furnished  ship  provided  by  Popham  sailed  from  the 
river  of  Severn,  under  the  command  of  Martin  Pring.  The 
able  mariner,  now  on  his  second  voyage  to  the  west,  dis- 
appointed of  meeting  Chalons,  busied  himself  in  the  perfect 
discovery  of  all  the  rivers  and  harbors  along  our  north- 
eastern coast ;  and,  on  his  return,  he  made  the  most  exact 
and  most  favorable  report  of  the  country  which  he  had 
explored. 

Out  of  his  report  sprung  the  first  great  effort  to  occupy 
the  region  then  known  as  Northern  Virginia ;  and,  like  that 
of  Southern  Virginia,  it  was  made  under  the  auspices  of  the 
king  and  of  the  church  of  England.  The  chief  justice  was 
no  novice  in  schemes  of  colonization,  having  "labored 
greatly  in  the  last  project  touching  the  plantation  of  Mun- 
ster  "  in  Ireland ;  Gorges,  the  younger  associate,  still  clung 
to  the  hope  of  acquiring  domains  and  fortune  in  America. 
Under  the  charter  to  the  Plymouth  company,  now  fourteen 
months  old,  and  six  months  after  the  departure  of  the  first 
colony  for  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  one  hundred  and 

1607.  twenty  persons  for  planters  sailed  from  Plymouth  in 
the  good  ship  "  Mary  and  John,"  of  London,  with 

Raleigh  Gilbert  for  its  captain,  and  in  a  fly-boat  called  the 
"  Gift  of  God,"  commanded  by  a  kinsman  of  the  chief  jus- 
tice, George  Popham,  who  was  "  well  strickened  in  years 
and  infirm,  yet  willing  to  die  in  acting  something  that  might 
be  serviceable  to  God  and  honorable  to  his  country." 


1606.  THE  PILQKIMS.  205 

After  a  voyage  of  two  months,  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
last  day  of  July,  old  style,  they  stood  in  for  the  shore, 
and  found  shelter  under  Monhegan  Island.  Their  IGOT. 
first  discovery  was  that  the  fishermen  of  France  and 
Spain  had  been  there  before  them.  They  had  not  ridden 
at  anchor  two  hours,  when  a  party  of  Indians,  in  a  Spanish 
shallop,  came  to  them  from  the  shore,  and  rowed  about 
them ;  and  the  next  day,  in  a  Biscay  boat,  returned  with 
women,  bringing  with  them  many  beaver-skins  to  exchange 
for  knives  and  beads.  In  the  following  days,  the  emigrants 
explored  the  coast  and  islands;  and  on  the  sixteenth  of 
August  both  ships  entered  the  Kennebec. 

On  the  nineteenth,  old  style,  they  all  went  on  shore ;  Aug.  19. 
made  choice  of  the  Sabino  peninsula,  near  the  mouth  of 
that  river,  for  their  fort ;  and  "  had  a  sermon  delivered  unto 
them  by  their  preacher."  After  the  sermon,  they  listened  to 
the  reading  of  the  commission  of  George  Popham,  their  presi- 
dent, and  of  the  laws  appointed  by  King  James.  Five  others 
were  sworn  assistants.  Without  delay,  most  of  the  men,  under 
the  oversight  of  the  president,  labored  hard  on  a  fort  which 
they  named  St.  George,  a  storehouse,  fifty  rude  cabins  for 
their  own  shelter,  and  a  church.  The  carpenters  set  about 
the  building  of  a  small  pinnace,  the  chief  shipwright  being 
one  Digby,  the  first  constructor  of  sea-going  craft  in  New 
England.  Meantime,  Gilbert  coasted  toward  the  west, 
judged  it  to  be  exceeding  fertile  from  the  goodly  and  great 
trees  with  which  it  was  covered,  and  brought  back  news  of 
the  beauty  of  Casco  Bay  with  its  hundreds  of  isles.  When, 
following  the  invitation  of  the  mighty  Indian  chief  who 
ruled  on  the  Penobscot,  Gilbert  would  have  visited  that 
river,  he  was  driven  back  by  foul  weather  and  cross  winds. 
But  he  remained  faithfully  in  the  colony  ;  and,  in  December, 
despatched  away  his  ship  under  another  commander,  who 
bore  letters  announcing  to  the  chief  justice  the  forwardness 
of  the  plantation,  and  importuning  supplies  for  the  coming 
year.  A  letter  from  President  Popham  to  King  James 
informed  that  monarch  that  his  justice  and  constancy,  his 
praises  and  virtues,  had  been  proclaimed  to  the  natives ;  and 
that  the  country  produced  fruits  resembling  spices,  as  well 


COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  VIIL 

as  timber  of  pine,  and  lay  hard  by  the  great  highway  to 
China  over  the  southern  ocean. 

The  winter  proved  to  be  intensely  cold ;  no  mines 
loos.      were  discovered ;  the  natives,  at  first  most  friendly, 

grew  restless ;  the  storehouse  caught  fire,  and  a  part 
of  the  provisions  of  the  colony  was  consumed  ;  the  emi- 
grants had  brought  discontent  with  them;  their  president 
found  his  grave  on  American  soil,  "the  only  one  of  the 
company  that  died  there  ; "  to  the  discomfort  and  despair 
of  the  poor  planters,  the  ship  which  revisited  the  settlement 
with  supplies  brought  news  of  the  death  of  the  chief  jus- 
tice, who  had  been  the  stay  of  the  enterprise ;  and  Gilbert, 
who  had  shown  rare  ability,  and  had  succeeded  to  the 
command  at  St.  George,  had,  by  the  decease  of  his  brother, 
become  heir  to  an  estate  in  England  which  required  his 
presence.  So,  notwithstanding  all  things  were  in  good 
forwardness,  the  fur-trade  with  the  Indians  prosperous,  and 
a  store  of  sarsaparilla  gathered,  "all  former  hopes  were 
frozen  to  death  ; "  and  nothing  was  thought  of  but  to  quit 
the  place.  Wherefore  they  all  embarked  in  the  newly 
arrived  ship,  and  in  the  new  pinnace,  the  "Virginia,"  and 
set  sail  for  England.  Here  was  the  end  of  that  northern 
colony  upon  the  river  Sagadahock.  The  returning  colonists 
"  did  coyne  many  excuses  "  to  conceal  their  want  of  spirit ; 
but  the  Plymouth  company  was  dissatisfied ;  Gorges  es- 
teemed it  a  weakness  to  be  frightened  at  a  blast.  Three 
years  had  elapsed  since  the  French  had  hutted  themselves 
at  Port  Royal ;  and  the  ships  which  carried  the  English 
from  the  Kennebec  were  on  the  ocean  at  the  same  time 
with  the  squadron  of  those  who  built  Quebec,  during  the 
summer  in  which  Maine  was  deserted. 

The  thought  of  colonies  in  these  northern  latitudes  grew 
familiar.  Vessels  were  annually  employed  in  the  New  Eng- 
land fisheries  and  fur-trade ;  and  once  at  least,  perhaps 
oftener,  some  part  of  a  ship's  company  remained  during  the 

winter  on  the  American  coast.  But  new  hopes  were 
Iprii.  awakened,  when  in  April,  1614,  John  Smith  —  late  the 

president  of  Virginia,  and  who  had,  with  unwearied 
importunity  and  firmness,  asserted  that  colonization  was  the 


1617.  THE  PILGRIMS.  207 

true  policy  of  England  —  sailed  with  two  ships  for  the  coast 
north  of  the  lands  granted  to  the  London  company.  This 
private  adventure  of  "four  merchants  of  London  and  him- 
self "  was  very  successful.  The  freights  were  profitable ; 
the  health  of  the  mariners  did  not  suffer ;  and  the  whole 
voyage  was  accomplished  in  less  than  seven  months.  While 
the  sailors  were  busy  with  their  hooks  and  lines,  Smith 
examined  the  shores  from  the  Penobscot  to  Cape  Cod, 
prepared  a  map  of  the  coast,  and  named  the  country  New 
England,  —  a  title  which  Prince  Charles  confirmed.  The 
French  could  boast,  with  truth,  that  New  France  had  been 
colonized  before  New  England  obtained  a  name ;  Port 
Royal  was  older  than  Plymouth,  Quebec  than  Boston. 
After  the  departure  of  Smith  for  England,  Thomas  Hunt, 
the  master  of  the  second  ship,  kidnapped  a  large  party  of 
Indians,  and  sold  "  the  poor  innocents  "  into  slavery  to  the 
Spaniards.  Yet  good  was  educed  from  evil :  one  of  the 
number,  escaping  from  captivity,  made  his  way  to  London, 
and,  in  1619,  was  restored  to  his  own  country,  where  he 
became  an  interpreter  for  English  emigrants. 

Encouraged  by  commercial  success,  Smith,  in  1615,  1615. 
in  the  employment  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and 
of  friends  in  London  who  were  members  of  the  Plymouth 
company,  endeavored  to  establish  a  colony.  Sixteen  men 
were  all  whom  the  adventurers  destined  for  the  occupation 
of  New  England.  The  attempt  was  unsuccessful.  Smith 
was  forced  by  violent  storms  to  return.  Again  renew- 
ing his  enterprise,  he  suffered  from  the  treachery  of  his 
companions,  and  was  intercepted  by  French  pirates.  His 
ship  having  been  taken  away,  he  himself  escaped  alone,  in 
an  open  boat,  from  the  harbor  of  Rochelle.  The  severest 
privations  in  a  new  settlement  would  have  been  less  weari- 
some than  the  labors  which  his  zeal  now  prompted  him  to 
undertake.  Having  published  a  map  and  a  descrip- 
tion of  New  England,  he  spent  many  months  in  i«7. 
visiting  the  merchants  and  gentry  of  the  west  of 
England,  to  excite  their  enterprise  :  he  proposed  to  the 
cities  mercantile  profits,  to  be  realized  in  short  and  safe 
voyages;  to  the  noblemen,  vast  dominions;  from  men  of 


208  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

small  means,  his  earnestness  concealed  the  hardships  of 
emigrants,  and  upon  the  dark  ground  drew  a  lively  picture 
of  the  rapid  advancement  of  fortune  by  colonial  industry,  of 
the  abundance  of  game,  the  delights  of  unrestrained  liberty, 
the  pleasures  to  be  derived  from  "  angling  and  crossing  the 
sweet  air  from  isle  to  isle  over  the  silent  streams  of  a  calm 
sea."  The  western  company  began  to  form  vast  plans  of 
colonization ;  Smith  was  appointed  admiral  of  the  country 
for  life ;  and  a  renewal  of  the  letters  patent,  with  powers 
analogous  to  those  possessed  by  the  southern  company, 
became  an  object  of  eager  solicitation.  But  a  new 
IBIS.  charter  was  not  obtained  without  vigorous  opposi- 
tion. "  Much  difference  there  was  betwixt  the  Lon- 
doners and  the  Westerlings,"  since  each  party  strove  to 
engross  all  the  profits  to  be  derived  from  America ;  while 
the  interests  of  the  nation  were  sustained  by  others,  who 
desired  that  no  monopoly  should  be  conceded  to  either 
company. 

The  remonstrances  of  the  Virginia  corporation,  and  a  tran- 
sient regard  for  the  rights  of  the  country,  could  delay,  but 
not  defeat,  a  measure  that  was  sustained  by  the  personal 
favorites  of  the  monarch.  After  two  years'  entreaty,  the 
ambitious  adventurers  gained  every  thing  which  they 
Nov?3.  ha(^  solicited ;  and  in  November,  1620,  King  James 
issued  to  forty  of  his  subjects,  some  of  them  members 
of  his  household  and  his  government,  the  most  wealthy  and 
powerful  of  the  English  nobility,  a  patent,  which  in  Amer- 
ican annals,  and  even  in  the  history  of  the  world,  has  but 
one  parallel.  The  adventurers  and  their  successors  were 
incorporated  as  "  The  Council  established  at  Plymouth,  in 
the  county  of  Devon,  for  the  planting,  ruling,  ordering,  and 
governing  New  England,  in  America."  The  territory, 
which  was  conferred  on  the  patentees  in  absolute  property, 
with  unlimited  jurisdiction,  the  sole  powers  of  legislation, 
the  appointment  of  all  officers  and  all  forms  of  government, 
extended  in  breadth  from  the  fortieth  to  the  forty-eighth 
degree  of  north  latitude,  and  in  length  from  the  Atlantic  to 
the  Pacific.  That  is  to  say,  nearly  all  the  inhabited  British 
possessions  to  the  north  of  the  United  States,  all  New  Eng- 


1621.  THE  PILGEIMS.  209 

land,  New  York,  half  of  New  Jersey,  very  nearly  all  Penn- 
sylvania, and  the  whole  of  the  country  to  the  west  of  these 
states,  comprising,  and  at  the  time  believed  to  comprise, 
much  more  than  a  million  of  square  miles,  and  capable  of 
sustaining  far  more  than  two  hundred  millions  of  inhabi- 
tants, were,  by  a  stroke  of  the  pen  of  King  James,  given 
away  to  a  corporation  within  the  realm,  composed  of  but 
forty  individuals.  The  grant  was  absolute  and  exclusive : 
it  conceded  the  land  and  islands,  the  rivers  and  the  harbors, 
the  mines  and  the  fisheries.  Without  the  leave  of  the  coun- 
cil of  Plymouth,  not  a  ship  might  sail  into  a  harbor  from 
Newfoundland  to  the  latitude  of  Philadelphia ;  not  a  skin 
might  be  purchased  in  the  interior;  not  a  fish  might  be 
caught  on  the  coast ;  not  an  emigrant  might  tread  the  soil. 
Those  who  should  become  inhabitants  of  the  colony  were 
to  be  ruled  without  their  own  consent,  by  the  corpo- 
ration in  England.  A  royal  proclamation  was  soon  1620. 
issued,  enforcing  these  provisions ;  and  a  revenue 
was  considered  certain  from  an  onerous  duty  on  all  tonnage 
employed  in  the  American  fisheries. 

The  results  which  grew  out  of  the  concession  of  this 
charter  form  a  new  proof,  if  any  were  wanting,  of  that 
mysterious  connection  of  events  by  which  Providence  leads 
to  ends  that  human  councils  had  not  conceived.  The  patent 
left  the  emigrants  at  the  mercy  of  the  unrestrained  power 
of  the  corporation ;  and  it  was  under  grants  from  that 
plenary  power,  confirmed,  indeed,  by  the  English  monarch, 
that  institutions  the  most  favorable  to  colonial  liberty  were 
established.  The  patent  yielded  every  thing  to  the  avarice 
of  the  corporation ;  the  very  extent  of  the  concession  rendered 
it  of  little  value  to  them.  The  English  nation,  incensed  at 
the  erection  of  vast  monopolies  by  the  royal  pre- 
rogative, prompted  the  house  of  commons  to  ques- 
tion  the  validity  of  the  gift ;  and  the  French,  whose 
traders  had  been  annually  sending  home  rich  freights  of  furs, 
derided  the  tardy  action  of  the  British  monarch  in  bestow- 
ing lands  and  privileges,  which  their  own  sovereign,  seven- 
teen years  before,  had  appropriated.  The  patent  was 
designed  to  hasten  plantations,  in  the  belief  that  men  would 

VOL.  I.  14 


210  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIIL 

eagerly  throng  to  the  coast,  under  the  protection  of  the 
council ;  and,  in  fact,  adventurers  were  delayed,  through  fear 
of  infringing  the  rights  of  a  powerful  company.  While  the 

English  monopolists  were  wrangling  about  their  exclu- 
1621.  sive  possessions,  the  first  permanent  colony  on  the  soil 

of  New  England  was  established  without  the  knowl- 

O 

edge  of  the  corporation,  and  without  the  aid  of  King  James. 

In  Germany,  the  Reformation  sprung  not  from  the  su- 
perior authority  of  the  sovereign,  but  from  a  peasant-born 
man  of  the  people,  and  aimed  at  a  regeneration  both  in 
morals  and  doctrine.  When  Martin  Luther  proclaimed 
that  justification  is  by  faith  alone,  superstition  was  at  one 
blow  cut  up  by  the  roots.  The  supernatural  charm  which 
hung  over  the  orders  whose  members  or  whose  chief  had, 
time  out  of  mind,  usurped  the  exclusive  right  to  absolve 
from  sin  and  to  interpose  themselves  between  man  and 
God,  was  dissolved.  Every  man  became  his  own  priest, 
and  was  directly  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty,  with  no 
other  mediator  than  the  Eternal  Wisdom,  with  no  absolu- 
tion for  evil  deeds  but  by  repentance  and  a  new  life.  There 
could  be  no  higher  expression  of  the  liberty  of  the  individ- 
ual over  against  his  fellow-men.  The  claim  of  right  to  the 
freedom  of  private  judgment  is  a  feeble  and  partial  state- 
ment in  comparison ;  for  it  declares  the  individual  man 
under  God  alone,  not  the  keeper  of  his  judgment  only,  but 
independent  of  pope,  bishop,  priest,  and  all  others  of  his 
kind,  the  keeper  of  his  reason,  affections,  conscience,  and 
character ;  in  a  word,  of  his  whole  being,  now  and  hereafter. 
Therefore  it  is  that,  in  an  age  when  political  questions  were 
enounced  in  theological  forms,  justification  by  faith  alone 
was  the  inscription  on  the  gate  through  which  the  more 
advanced  of  the  human  race  were  to  pass  to  freedom. 

The  Reformation  in  England — an  event  which  had  been 
long  and  gradually  prepared  among  its  people  by  the  widely 
accepted  teachings  of  Wy cliff e;  among  its  scholars,  by  the 
revival  of  letters,  the  presence,  the  personal  influence,  and 
the  writings  of  Erasmus,  and  the  liberal  discourses  of  preach- 
ers trained  in  the  new  learning ;  among  the  courtiers,  by  the 
frequent  resistance  of  English  kings  to  the  usurpations  of 


1539.  THE  PILGRIMS.  211 

ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  —  was  abruptly  introduced  by  a 
passionate  and  overbearing  monarch,  acting  in  conjunction 
with  his  parliament  to  withdraw  the  authority  of  the  crown 
of  England  from  all  subjection  to  an  alien  pontiff. 

In  the  history  of  the  English  constitution,  this  measure  of 
definitive  resistance  to  the  pope  was  memorable  as  the  begin- 
ning of  the  real  greatness  of  the  house  of  commons;  and 
when  Clement  VII.  excommunicated  the  king,  and  Paul  III. 
invited  Catholic  Europe  to  reduce  all  his  subjects  who  sup- 
ported him  to  poverty  and  bondage,  it  was  in  the  commons 
that  he  found  countervailing  support.  But  there  was  no 
thought  of  a  radical  reform  in  morals ;  nor  did  any  one 
mighty  creative  mind,  like  that  of  Luther  or  Calvin,  infuse 
into  the  people  a  new  spiritual  life.  So  far  was  the 
freedom  of  private  inquiry  from  being  recognised  as  a  1534. 
right,  that  even  the  means  of  forming  a  judgment  on 
religious  subjects  was  denied.  The  act  of  supremacy, 
which  severed  the  English  nation  from  the  Roman  NOT.  4. 
see,  was  but  "  the  manumitting  and  enfranchising  of 
the  regal  dignity  from  the  recognition  of  a  foreign  superior." 
It  did  not  aim  at  enfranchising  the  English  church,  far  less 
the  English  people  or  the  English  mind.  The  king  of  Eng- 
land became  the  pope  in  his  own  dominions ;  and  heresy 
was  still  accounted  the  foulest  of  crimes.  The  right  of 
correcting  errors  of  religious  faith  became,  by  the  suffrage 
of  parliament,  a  branch  of  the  royal  prerogative ;  and,  as 
active  minds  among  the  people  were  continually  proposing 
new  schemes  of  doctrine,  a  statute,  alike  arrogant  in  its 
pretensions  and  atrocious  in  its  menaces,  was,  after 
great  opposition  in  parliament,  enacted  "  for  abolish-  1539. 
ing  diversity  of  opinions."  Almost  all  the  Roman 
Catholic  doctrines  were  asserted,  except  the  supremacy  of 
the  bishop  of  Rome.  The  pope  could  praise  Henry  VIII. 
for  orthodoxy,  while  he  excommunicated  him  for  disobedi- 
ence. He  commended  to  the  wavering  emperor  the  English 
sovereign  as  a  model  for  soundness  of  belief,  and  anathema- 
tized him  only  for  contumacy.  It  was  Henry's  pride  to  defy 
the  authority  of  the  Roman  bishop,  and  yet  to  enforce  the 
doctrines  of  the  Roman  church.  He  was  as  tenacious  of 


212  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  VIH. 

his  reputation  for  Catholic  orthodoxy  as  of  his  claim  to 
spiritual  dominion.  He  disdained  submission,  and  he  de- 
tested heresy. 

NOT  was  Henry  VIII.  slow  to  sustain  his  new  preroga- 
tives. According  to  ancient  usage,  no  sentence  of  death, 
awarded  by  the  ecclesiastical  courts,  could  be  carried  into 
effect  until  a  writ  had  been  obtained  from  the  king.  The 
regulation  had  been  adopted  in  a  spirit  of  mercy,  securing 
to  the  temporal  authorities  the  power  of  restraining  perse- 
cution. The  heretic  might  appeal  from  the  atrocity  of  the 
priest  to  the  mercy  of  the  prince.  But  what  hope  remained, 
when  the  two  authorities  were  united ;  and  the  law,  which 
had  been  enacted  as  a  protection  of  the  subject,  became  the 
instrument  of  tyranny !  No  virtue,  no  eminence,  conferred 
security.  Not  the  forms  of  worship  merely,  but  the  minds 
of  men,  were  declared  subordinate  to  the  government ;  faith, 
not  less  than  ceremony,  was  to  vary  with  the  acts  of  par- 
liament. Death  was  denounced  against  the  Catholic  who 
denied  the  king's  supremacy,  and  the  Protestant  who 
doubted  his  creed.  Had  Luther  been  an  Englishman,  he 
might  have  perished  by  fire.  In  the  latter  part  of  his  life, 
Henry  revoked  the  general  permission  of  reading  the  Script- 
ures, and  limited  the  privilege  to  merchants  and  nobles.  He 
always  adhered  to  his  old  religion,  and  died  in  the  Roman 
rather  than  in  the  Protestant  faith.  The  environs  of  the 
court  displayed  no  resistance  to  the  capricious  monarch ; 
a  subservient  parliament  yielded  him  absolute  authority  in 
religion ;  but  the  awakened  intelligence  of  a  great  nation 
could  not  be  terrified  into  a  passive  lethargy ;  and,  even 
though  it  sometimes  faltered  in  its  progress  along  untried 
paths,  steadily  demanded  the  emancipation  of  the  public 
mind. 

The  people  were  still  accustomed  to  the  Catholic 
jan.728.  forms  of  worship  and  of  belief,  when,  in  January,  1547, 
the  accession  of  the  boy  Edward  VI.,  England's 
only  Puritan  king,  opened  the  way  to  changes  within  its 
church.  The  reform  had  made  great  advances  among  the 
French  and  among  the  Swiss.  Both  Luther  and  Calvin 
brought  the  individual  into  immediate  relation  with  God; 


1547.  THE  PILGRIMS.  213 

but  Calvin,  under  a  more  stern  and  militant  form  of  doc- 
trine, lifted  the  individual  above  pope  and  prelate,  and 
priest  and  presbyter,  above  Catholic  Church  and  national 
church  and  general  synod,  above  indulgences,  remissions, 
and  absolutions  from  fellow-mortals,  and  brought  him  into 
the  immediate  dependence  on  God,  whose  eternal,  irre- 
versible choice  is  made  by  himself  alone,  not  arbitrarily,  but 
according  to  his  own  highest  wisdom  and  justice.  Luther 
spared  the  altar,  and  hesitated  to  deny  totally  the  real  pres- 
ence ;  Calvin,  with  superior  dialectics,  accepted  as  a  com- 
memoration and  a  seal  the  rite  which  the  Catholics  revered 
as  a  sacrifice.  Luther  favored  magnificence  in  public  wor- 
ship, as  an  aid  to  devotion ;  Calvin,  the  guide  of  republics, 
avoided  in  their  churches  all  appeals  to  the  senses,  as  a  peril 
to  pure  religion.  Luther  condemned  the  Roman  Church 
for  its  immorality ;  Calvin,  for  its  idolatry.  Luther  exposed 
the  folly  of  superstition,  ridiculed  the  hair  shirt  and  the 
scourge,  the  purchased  indulgence,  and  dearly  bought,  worth- 
less masses  for  the  dead ;  Calvin  shrunk  from  their  criminal- 
ity with  impatient  horror.  Luther  permitted  the  cross  and 
the  taper,  pictures  and  images,  as  things  of  indifference ; 
Calvin  demanded  a  spiritual  worship  in  its  utmost  purity. 
Luther  left  the  organization  of  the  church  to  princes  and 
governments;  Calvin  reformed  doctrine,  ritual,  and  prac- 
tice ;  and,  by  establishing  ruling  elders  in  each  church  and 
an  elective  synod,  he  secured  to  his  polity  a  representative 
character,  which  combined  authority  with  popular  rights. 
Both  Luther  and  Calvin  insisted  that,  for  each  one,  there 
is  and  can  be  no  other  priest  than  himself ;  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence, both  agreed  in  the  parity  of  the  clergy.  Both 
were  of  one  mind,  that,  should  pious  laymen  choose  one 
of  their  number  to  be  their  minister,  "  the  man  so  chosen 
would  be  as  truly  a  priest  as  if  all  the  bishops  in  the  world 
had  consecrated  him." 

In  the  regency  which  was  established  during  the       IMT. 
minority  of  Edward,  the  reforming  party  had  the 
majority.    Calvin  made  an  appeal  to  Somerset,  the  protector ; 
and,  burning  with  zeal  to  include  the  whole  people  of  Eng- 
land in  a  perfect  unity  with  the  reformers  of  the  continent, 


214  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIH. 

he  urged  Cranmer  to  call  together  pious  and  rational  men, 
educated  in  the  school  of  God,  to  meet  and  agree  upon  one 
uniform  confession  of  Christian  doctrine,  according  to  the 
rule  of  Scripture.  "  As  for  me,"  he  said,  "  if  I  can  be  made 
use  of,  I  will  sail  through  ten  seas  to  bring  this  about." 

In  the  first  year  of  the  new  reign,  Peter  Martyr  and 
another  from  the  continent  were  summoned  to  Oxford. 
The  Book  of  Homilies,  which  held  forth  the  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith,  prepared  by  Cranmer  in  the  year  1547, 
laid  the  foundation  for  further  reform  ;  and  in  the  next  ap- 
peared Cranmer's  first  Book  of  the  Common  Prayer,  in  which, 
however,  there  lurked  many  superstitions.  Bucer,  who,  in 
1549,  was  called  to  Cambridge,  complained  of  the  back- 
wardness of  "  the  reformation."  "  Do  not  abate  your  speed, 
because  you  approach  the  goal,"  wrote  Calvin  to  Cranmer. 
"  By  too  much  delay,  the  harvest-time  will  pass  by,  and  the 
cold  of  a  perpetual  winter  set  in.  The  more  age  weighs 
on  you,  the  more  swiftly  ought  you  to  press  on,  lest  your 
conscience  reproach  you  for  your  tardiness,  should  you  go 
from  the  world  while  things  still  lie  in  confusion."  The 
tendency  of  the  governing  mind  appeared  from  the  appoint- 
ment, in  1551,  of  John  Knox  as  a  royal  chaplain.  Cranmer 
especially  desired  to  come  to  an  agreement  with  the  re- 
formed church  on  the  eucharist ;  and,  on  that  subject,  his 
liturgy  of  1552  adopted  the  teaching  of  Calvin ;  the  priest 
became  a  minister,  the  altar  a  table,  the  bread  and  wine  a 
commemoration.  Exorcism  in  the  rite  of  baptism,  auricular 
confession,  the  use  of  consecrated  oil,  prayers  for  the  dead, 
were  abolished.  "  The  Anglican  liturgy,"  wrote  Calvin  of 
this  revised  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  "  wants  the  purity 
which  was  to  have  been  wished  for,  yet  its  fooleries  can  be 
borne  with." 

The  forty-two  articles  of  religion  digested  by  Cran- 
1553.  mer,  and  promulgated  by  royal  authority,  set  forth 
the  creed  of  the  evangelical  church  as  that  of  all 
England.  In  the  growing  abhorrence  of  superstition,  the 
inquisitive  mind,  especially  in  the  cities,  asked  for  greater 
simplicity  in  the  vestments  of  ministers  and  in  the  forms  of 
devotion.  Not  a  rite  remained  of  which  the  fitness  had  not 


1553.  THE  PILGEIMS.  215 

been  questioned.  The  authority  of  all  traditions,  of  papal 
bulls  and  briefs,  encyclicals  and  epistles,  and  of  decrees  of 
councils,  was  done  away  with ;  and  the  austere  principle 
announced  that  neither  symbol,  nor  vestment,  nor  cere- 
mony, nor  bowing  at  a  name,  nor  kneeling  at  an  emblem, 
should  be  borne  with,  unless  it  was  set  forth  in  the  word 
of  God.  A  more  complete  reform  was  demanded ;  and  the 
friends  of  the  established  liturgy  expressed  in  the  prayer- 
book  itself  a  wish  for  its  furtherance.  The  churchmen  de- 
sired to  differ  from  the  ancient  forms  as  little  as  possible, 
and  readily  adopted  the  use  of  things  indifferent;  the 
Puritans  could  not  sever  themselves  too  widely  from  the 
Roman  usages. 

Of  the  insurrections  in  the  reign  of  Edward,  all  but  one 
sprung  from  the  oppression  of  the  landlords.  England 
accepted  the  reformation ;  though  the  want  of  good  preach- 
ers impeded  the  training  of  the  people  in  its  principles. 
There  was  no  agreement  among  the  bishops  on  doctrine 
or  discipline.  Many  parishes  were  the  property  of  the 
nobles ;  many  ecclesiastics,  some  even  of  those  who  affected 
to  be  evangelical,  were  pluralists,  and  left  their  numerous 
parishes  to  the  care  of  those  who  would  serve  at  the  lowest 
price,  even  though  sometimes  they  could  not  read  English. 
Lay  proprietors,  who  had  taken  the  lands  of  the  monas- 
teries, saved  themselves  from  paying  pensions  to  dispos- 
sessed monks  by  setting  them,  however  ignorant  or  unfit, 
over  many  parishes.  In  some  a  sermon  had  not  been 
preached  for  years. 

In  this  state  of  public  worship  throughout  the  land, 
Mary  ascended  the  throne;  and,  by  her  zeal  to  re- 
store  the  old  religion,  became  the  chief  instrument  in 
establishing  the  new.  The  people  are  swayed  more  by  their 
emotions  than  by  processes  of  dialectics ;  and,  where  two 
parties  appear  before  them,  the  majority  is  most  readily 
roused  for  that  one  which  appeals  to  the  heart.  Mary 
offended  English  nationality  by  taking  the  king  of  Spain  for 
her  husband ;  and,  while  the  statesmen  of  Edward's  time  had 
not  been  able  to  reach  the  country  by  preachers,  she  startled 
the  dwellers  in  every  parish  in  England  by  the  fires  which 


216  COLONIAL    HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIIL 

she  lighted  at  Gloucester  and  Oxford  and  Smithfield,  where 
prelates  and  ministers,  and  men  and  women  of  the  most 
exemplary  lives,  bore  witness  among  blazing  fagots  to  the 
truth  of  the  reformed  religion,  by  displaying  the  highest 
qualities  that  give  dignity  to  human  nature.  Rogers  and 
Hooper,  the  first  martyrs  of  Protestant  England,  were  Pu- 
ritans. And  it  was  observed  that  Puritans  never  sought  by 
concessions  to  escape  the  flames.  For  them,  compromise 
was  itself  apostasy.  The  offer  of  pardon  could  not  induce 
Hooper  to  waver,  nor  the  pains  of  a  lingering  death  impair 
his  fortitude.  He  suffered  by  a  very  slow  fire,  and  died  as 
quietly  as  a  child  in  his  bed. 

A  large  part  of  the  English  clergy  went  back  to  their  sub- 
mission to  the  see  of  Rome ;  while  others  adhered  to  the 
Reformation  from  conviction,  many  of  whom  had,  in  their 
wives  and  children,  given  hostages  for  fidelity.  Among  the 
multitudes  who  hurried  into  foreign  lands,  one  party  aimed 
at  renewing  abroad  the  forms  of  discipline  which  had  been 
sanctioned  in  the  reign  of  Edward  ;  the  Puritans  endeavored 
to  sweeten  their  exile  by  completely  emancipating  them- 
selves from  all  offensive  ceremonies.  The  sojourning  in 
Frankfort  was  at  first  embittered  by  angry  divisions ;  but 
time  softened  the  asperities  of  controversy ;  and  a  reconcilia- 
tion was  prepared  by  concessions  to  the  Puritans.  For  the 
abode  on  the  continent  was  well  adapted  to  strengthen  the 
influence  of  the  stricter  sect.  While  the  companions  of  their 
flight  had,  with  the  most  bitter  intolerance,  been  rejected 
by  Denmark  and  Northern  Germany,  the  English  received 
in  Switzerland  the  kindest  welcome ;  their  love  for  the 
rigorous  austerity  of  a  spiritual  worship  was  confirmed ;  and 
some  of  them  enjoyed  in  Geneva  the  instructions  and  the 
friendship  of  Calvin. 

1558.  On  tne  death  of  Mary,  the  Puritan  exiles  returned 
NOV.  IT.  t0  England  with  still  stronger  antipathies  to  the  forms 
of  worship  and  the  vestures,  which  had  been  disused  in 
the  churches  of  Switzerland,  and  which  they  now  repelled  as 
associated  with  the  cruelties  of  Roman  intolerance  at  home. 
The  pledges  which  had  been  given  at  Frankfort  and 
Geneva,  to  promote  further  reforms,  were  redeemed.  But 


1558.  TEE  PILGRIMS.  217 

the  controversy  was  modified  by  the  personal  character  of 
the  English  sovereign. 

The  younger  daughter  of  Henry  VIII.  had  at  her  father's 
court,  until  her  fourteenth  year,  conformed  like  him  to  the 
rites  of  the  Roman  church.  Less  than  twelve  years  had 
passed  since  his  death.  For  two  or  three  of  those  years,  she 
had  made  use  of  Cranmer's  first  Book  of  Common  Prayer ; 
but  hardly  knew  the  second,  which  was  introduced  only  a 
few  weeks  before  her  brother's  death.  Xo  one  ever  ascribed 
to  her  any  inward  experience  of  the  influences  of  religion. 
During  the  reign  of  her  sister  Mary,  she  had  conformed 
to  the  Catholic  Church  without  a  scruple.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-four  restored  to  freedom  by  accession  to  the  throne, 
her  first  words  were  that  she  would  "  do  as  her  father  did ; " 
and,  like  her  father,  she  never  called  herself  a  Protestant, 
but  a  Catholic  except  in  subordination  to  the  pope.  She 
respected  the  symbols  of  the  "  Catholic  faith,"  and  loved 
magnificence  in  worship.  She  publicly  thanked  one  of  her 
chaplains,  who  had  asserted  the  real  presence.  She  vehe- 
mently desired  to  retain  in  her  private  chapel  images,  the 
crucifix,  and  tapers ;  she  was  inclined  to  offer  prayers  to  the 
Virgin ;  she  favored  the  invocation  of  saints.  She  so  far 
required  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  that,  during  her  reign, 
their  marriages  took  place  only  by  connivance. 

Neither  the  influence  of  early  education  nor  the  love  of 
authority  would  permit  Elizabeth  to  cherish  and  imitate  the 
reformed  churches  of  the  continent,  which  had  risen  in 
defiance  of  all  ordinary  powers  of  the  world,  and  which 
could  justify  their  existence  only  on  a  strong  claim  to 
natural  liberty. 

On  this  young  woman  devolved  the  choice  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  as  it  seemed,  for  the  two  or  three  millions 
who  then  formed  the  people  of  England ;  but,  in  truth,  for 
very  many  in  countries  collectively  more  than  twice  as  l.irm- 
as  all  Europe.  Her  choice  was  for  the  first  service-book  of 
her  brother :  yielding  to  the  immense  weight  of  a  Puritan 
opposition,  which  was  as  yet  unbalanced  by  an  episcopal 
section  in  the  church,  she  consented  to  that  of  1553,  but  the 
prayer  against  the  tyranny  of  the  bishop  of  Rome  was  left 


218  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

out ;  the  sign  of  the  cross  in  baptism  was  restored ;  the 
minister  was  sometimes  denominated  the  priest ;  the  table 
was  sometimes  called  the  altar ;  and  the  rubric,  which  scouted 
the  belief  in  the  objective  real  presence  of  Christ  in  the 
eucharist  as  gross  idolatry,  was  discarded.  English  historians 
have  excused  these  concessions  in  the  liturgy,  as  making  it 
light  for  Roman  Catholics  to  stay  in  the  Anglican  church ; 
but  they  were  better  suited  "  to  introduce  and  countenance 
such  opinions  and  ceremonies  as  are  fittest  for  accommoda- 
tion with  popery,  to  increase  and  maintain  ignorance  among 
the  people,"  and  to  lead  to  a  conspiracy  between  the  crown 
and  the  mitre  for  throwing  down  the  liberties  of  England 
from  their  foundation.  From  the  moment  of  the  acces- 
sion of  Elizabeth,  the  pope  rendered  all  the  proffered  allure- 
ments nugatory,  by  denying  her  right  to  the  English  throne, 
and  summoning  her  to  submit  her  pretensions  to  his  decision. 
And  yet  Elizabeth  obstinately  held  that  the  Puritans  were 
more  perilous  than  the  Romanists,  in  whom  she  saw  friends 
to  monarchy,  if  not  to  the  person  of  the  monarch.  She 
long  desired  to  establish  the  national  religion  mid-way  be- 
tween sectarian  licentiousness  and  Roman  supremacy  ;  and, 
after  her  policy  in  religion  was  once  declared,  the  pride  of 
authority  would  brook  no  opposition. 

When  rigorous  orders  for  enforcing  conformity  were  first 

issued,  the  Puritans  were  rather  excited  to  defiance  than 

intimidated.     Of  the  London  ministers,  about  thirty  refused 

subscription,  and  men  began  to  speak  openly  of  a  secession 

from  the  church;   "not  for  hatred  to  the  estates  of  the 

church  of  England,  but  for  love  to  a  better."     At  length,  a 

separate  congregation  was  formed  ;  immediately  the 

JUM.     government  was  alarmed;   and  the  leading  men  of 

the  congregation,  and  several  women,  were  sent  to 

Bridewell  for  a  year. 

While  the  personal  influence  of  the  queen  crushed  every 
movement  of  the  house  of  commons  towards  satisfying  the 
scruples  of  the  Puritans  by  reforms  in  the  service-book,  it 
chanced  otherwise  with  her  aversion  to  the  abstract  articles 
of  religion.  In  January,  156§,  the  convocation  of  the  An- 
glican clergy,  in  whom  the  spirit  of  the  Reformation  then  pre- 


1571.  THE  PILGRIMS.  219 

vailed,  having  compressed  the  forty-two  articles  of  Cranmer 
and  Edward  VI.  into  thirty-eight,  adopted  and  subscribed 
them ;  and,  except  for  the  opposition  of  the  queen  and  her 
council,  they  would  have  been  confirmed  by  parliament. 
When,  four  years  later,  a  Puritan  house  of  commons  voted 
to  impose  them  on  the  clergy,  Elizabeth,  at  the  instance  of 
the  English  Catholics,  and  after  a  long  consultation  with  the 
ambassador  of  Spain,  used  her  influence  to  suppress  a  debate 
on  the  bill  in  the  house  of  lords.  But,  in  the  year  after  there 
had  been  nailed  to  the  door  of  the  bishop  of  London  the 
bull  in  which  the  pope,  Pius  V.,  denied  her  right  to  the 
English  throne  and  excommunicated  every  English  Catholic 
who  should  remain  loyal  to  her,  at  a  time  when  he 
was  trying  to  get  her  put  out  of  the  way  by  assassins,  1571. 
though  she  still  quelled  every  movement  toward 
changes  in  the  liturgy,  she  dared  not  refuse  assent  to  an 
act  which  required  subscription  to  the  so  called  thirty-nine 
articles,  as  an  indispensable  condition  for  the  tenure  of  a 
benefice  in  the  church  of  England.  From  that  time  for- 
ward, while  conformity  to  the  common  prayer  was  alone 
required  of  the  laity,  every  clergyman  of  the  church  of 
England  wrote  himself  a  believer  "  that  justification  is  by 
faith,  that  Holy  Scripture  containeth  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation,  and  that  transubstantiation  is  repugnant  to  the 
plain  words  of  Scripture,  overthroweth  the  nature  of  a  sac- 
rament, and  hath  given  occasion  to  many  superstitions."  In 
this  manner,  Calvinism  was  intrenched  in  the  citadel  of  the 
Anglican  church.  "  By  the  adoption  of  the  thirty-nine  arti- 
cles," say  English  Catholics,  "  the  seal  was  set  to  the  Refor- 
mation in  England ;  a  new  church  was  built  on  the  ruins  of 
the  old." 

Within  the  church  of  England,  there  necessarily  developed 
itself  an  irreconcilable  division.  The  power  of  the  bishop, 
which  was  for  some  years  looked  upon  as  only  administra- 
tive, began  to  be  considered  as  intermediary ;  and  the  attempt 
was  made  to  reconcile  the  regenerating  power  of  an  or- 
dained prelacy  to  faith  in  the  direct  dealing  of  God  with 
each  individual  soul.  The  one  party  claimed  for  the  bishops 
an  unbroken  sacred  succession  from  apostolic  times,  and 


220  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIII 

therefore,  separating  itself  from  Protestantism,  could  recog- 
nise no  equal  except  the  orthodox  Greek  church  and  that  of 
Rome :  the  other  scoffed  at  the  pretended  divine  right  of 
bishops,  the  transmission  of  highest  wisdom  by  the  touch 
of  a  man's  hand,  and  sought  a  perfect  unity  with  the  re- 
formers of  the  continent.  Both  parties  avoided  separation 
or  schism;  both  strove  for  mastery  in  the  church  of  the 
whole  nation ;  and  each  of  the  two,  fast  anchored  within 
that  church,  engaged  in  a  contest  for  the  exclusive  direc- 
tion of  the  public  worship. 

But,  besides  these  parties  contending  for  lordship  over 
the  religion  of  the  whole  land,  there  rose  up  a  class  of  in- 
dependent men,  who  carried  opposition  to  the  church  of 
England  to  the  extreme,  refused  communion  with  a  body  of 
which  they  condemned  the  ceremonies  and  the  government, 
and  desired  nothing  but  liberty  to  separate  from  it  and  in- 
stitute social  worship  according  to  their  own  consciences. 
Henry  VIII.  had  enfranchised  the  English  crown ;  Eliza- 
beth had  enfranchised  the  Anglican  church :  the  Puritans 
claimed  equality  for  the  popular  clergy ;  the  Independents 
asserted  the  liberty  of  each  individual  mind  to  discover 
"  truth  in  the  word  of  God."  The  Reformation  had  begun 
in  England  with  the  monarch  ;  had  extended  among  the  no- 
bility ;  had  been  developed  under  the  guidance  of  a  hier- 
archy ;  and  had  but  slowly  penetrated  the  masses.  The 
party  of  the  Independents  was  plebeian  in  its  origin,  and 
carried  the  principle  of  intellectual  enfranchisement  from 
authority  into  the  houses  of  the  common  people.  Its  adher- 
ents were  "  neither  gentry  nor  beggars."  They  desired  free- 
dom to  worship  God  in  congregations  of  their  own. 

The  demand  excited  alarm  in  the  hierarchy.  It  had  long 
been  held  too  dangerous  for  a  Christian  prince  to  grant  a 
liberty  that  one  of  his  subjects  should  use  a  religion  against 
the  conscience  of  the  prince ;  and  Bacon  said :  "  The  per- 
mission of  the  exercise  of  more  religions  than  one  is  a 
dangerous  indulgence."  It  was  determined  at  once  to  crush 
this  principle  of  voluntary  union  by  every  terror  of  the 
law.  Among  the  clergymen  who  inclined  to  it  were  Cop- 
ping, Thacker,  and  Robert  Browne.  By  Freke  as  bishop 


1523.  THE  PILGRIMS.  221 

of  Norwich,  the  two  former  were  cast  into  the  common  jail 
of  Bury  St.  Edmunds.  From  the  prison  of  Norwich, 
Browne  was  released,  through  the  influence  of  his  kinsman, 
the  lord  treasurer,  Barleigh.  He  escaped  to  the  Nether- 
lands, gathered  a  church  at  Middleburg  from  among 
English  exiles,  and  printed  three  tracts  in  exposition  1582. 
of  his  belief.  In  substance,  his  writings  contain  two 
seminal  ideas :  first,  if  the  prince,  or  magistrate  under  the 
prince,  do  refuse  or  defer  to  reform  the  church,  the  people 
may  without  their  consent  sever  themselves  from  the  national 
church,  and  for  themselves  individually  undertake  a  refor- 
mation without  tarrying  for  any ;  and,  secondly,  a  church 
may  be  gathered  by  a  number  of  believers  coming  together 
under  a  willing  covenant  made  among  themselves,  without 
civil  authority. 

Both  these  propositions  Luther  had  approved,  as  in  them- 
selves thoroughly  right.  But  the  English  prelacy  pursued 
the  avowal  of  them  with  merciless  severity.  Copping  and 
Thacker,  accused  of  assisting  to  spread  the  book  of  Robert 
Browne,  were  transferred  to  the  secular  power,  and,  under 
the  interpretation  of  the  law  by  the  lord  chief  justice  of 
England,  were  hanged  for  the  felony  of  sedition.  Browne, 
by  submitting  himself  to  the  established  order  and  govern- 
ment in  the  church,  obtained  a  benefice  which  he  enjoyed 
till  he  became  fourscore  years  of  age.  The  principles,  of 
which  the  adoption  had  alone  given  him  distinction,  lay 
deeply  rooted  in  the  religious  thought  of  the  country,  and 
did  not  suffer  from  his  apostasy. 

From  this  time,  there  was  a  division  among  the  Puritans. 
The  very  great  majority  of  them  continued  their  connection 
with  the  national  church,  which  they  hoped  one  day  to 
model  according  to  their  own  convictions ;  the  minority  sep- 
arated from  it,  as  radically  infected  with  Roman  supersti- 
tions, and  false  to  the  simplicity  of  true  Christianity ;  and, 
with  logical  consistency,  they  would  have  no  national 
church,  but  looked  for  the  life  of  religion  in  the  liberty  of 
the  conscience  of  the  individual.  The  feud  became  bitter 
in  England,  and  led  to  great  political  results ;  but  it  could 
not  be  renewed  beyond  the  Atlantic. 


222  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

The  party  of  the  outright  separatists  having  been  pursued 
till  they  seemed  to  be  wholly  rooted  out,  the  queen  pressed 
on  to  the  graver  conflict  with  the  Puritan  churchmen.  "  In 
truth,  Elizabeth  and  James  were  personally  the  great  support 
of  the  high  church  interest ;  it  had  few  real  friends  among  her 
counsellors."  In  vain  did  the  best  statesmen  favor  modera- 
tion :  the  queen  was  impatient  of  non-conformity,  as  the 
nursery  of  disobedience  and  rebellion.  At  a  time  when  the 
readiest  mode  of  reaching  the  minds  of  the  common  people 
was  through  the  pulpit,  and  when  the  preachers  would  often 
speak  with  plainness  and  homely  energy  on  all  the  events  of 
the  day,  the  claim  of  the  Puritans  to  the  "  liberty  of  prophe- 
sying "  was  similar  to  the  modern  demand  of  the  liberty  of 
the  press ;  and  threatened  not  only  to  disturb  the  uniformity 
of  the  national  worship,  but  to  impair  the  royal  authority. 

The  learned  Grindal,  who  during  the  reign  of  Mary  had 
lived  in  exile,  had,  after  her  death,  hesitated  about  accepting 
a  mitre  from  dislike  to  what  he  regarded  as  the  mummery 
of  consecration,  and  early  in  1576  had  been  advanced  to  the 
see  of  Canterbury.  At  the  head  of  the  English  clergy,  he 
gave  an  example  of  reluctance  to  prosecute.  But  he,  whom 
Bacon  calls  "  one  of  the  greatest  and  rarest  prelates  of  his 
time,"  brought  down  upon  himself  the  petulance  of  Eliza- 
beth by  his  refusal  to  suppress  the  liberty  of  prophesying ; 
was  suspended ;  and,  when  blind  and  broken-hearted,  waa 
ordered  to  resign.  Nothing  but  his  death,  in  1583,  saved  him 
from  being  superseded  by  Whitgift. 

The  accession  of  Whitgift  marks  the  epoch  of  ex- 
Sep*323.  treme  and  consistent  rigor  in  the  public  councils ;  for 
the  new  archbishop  was  sincerely  attached  to  the 
English  church,  and,  from  a  regard  to  religion,  enforced 
the  conformity  which  the  queen  desired  as  the  support  of 
her  power.  He  was  a  strict  disciplinarian,  and  wished  to 
govern  the  clergy  of  the  realm  as  he  would  rule  the  mem- 
bers of  a  college.  Subscriptions  were  now  required  to 
points  which  before  had  been  eluded ;  the  kingdom  rung 
with  the  complaints  for  deprivation ;  the  most  learned  and 
diligent  of  the  ministry  were  driven  from  their  places ;  and 
those  who  were  introduced  to  read  the  liturgy  were  so  igno- 


1584.  THE  PILGEIMS.  223 

rant  that  few  of  them  could  preach.  Did  men  listen  to 
their  deprived  pastors  in  the  recesses  of  forests  or  in  taber- 
nacles, the  offence,  if  discovered,  was  visited  by  fines  and 
imprisonment. 

The  first  statute  of  Queen  Elizabeth  enacting  her  suprem- 
acy gave  her  authority  to  erect  a  commission  for 
causes  ecclesiastical.  On  the  first  of  July,  1584,  a  new  jjf^i 
form  was  given  to  this  court.  Forty-four  commission- 
ers, twelve  of  whom  were  bishops,  had  roving  powers,  as 
arbitrary  as  those  of  the  Spanish  inquisitors,  to  search  after 
heretical  opinions,  seditious  books,  absences  from  divine 
worship  established  by  law,  errors,  heresies,  and  schisms. 
The  primary  model  of  the  court  was  the  inquisition  itself, 
its  English  germ  a  commission  granted  by  Mary  to  cer- 
tain bishops  and  others  to  inquire  after  all  heresies.  All 
suspected  persons  might  be  called  before  them ;  and  men 
were  obliged  to  answer,  on  oath,  every  question  proposed, 
either  against  others  or  against  themselves.  In  vain  did  the 
sufferers  murmur;  in  vain  did  parliament  disapprove  the 
commission,  which  was  alike  illegal  and  arbitrary ;  in  vain 
did  Burleigh  remonstrate  against  a  system  so  intolerant 
that  "  the  inquisitors  of  Spain  used  not  so  many  questions 
to  trap  their  preys."  The  archbishop  would  have  deemed 
forbearance  a  weakness  ;  and  the  queen  was  ready  to  inter- 
pret any  freedom  in  religion  as  the  treasonable  denial  of 
her  supremacy  or  the  felony  of  sedition. 

The  institution  of  this  ecclesiastical  court  stands  out  in 
high  relief  as  one  of  the  great  crimes  against  civilization, 
and  admits  of  no  extenuation  or  apology  except  by  recrim- 
ination. It  has  its  like  in  the  bull  of  Leo  X.  against  Luther ; 
in  the  advice  of  Calvin  to  the  English  reformers;  in  the 
blind  zeal  of  the  Puritans  of  that  day,  who,  like  Cartwright, 
taught  that  "  heretykes  oughte  to  be  put  to  deathe  nowe, 
that  uppon  repentance  ther  oughte  not  to  followe  any  par- 
don of  deathe  ;  that  the  magistrates  which  punish  murther 
and  are  lose  in  punishing  the  breaches  of  the  first  table, 
begynne  at  the  wronge  end ;"  and,  finally,  in  the  act  of  the 
Presbyterian  Long  Parliament  inflicting  the  punishment  of 
death  upon  various  religious  opinions.  Luther  alone  has 


224  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP. 

the  glory  of  "  forbidding  to  fight  for  the  gospel  with  violence 
and  death." 

The  party  thus  persecuted  were  the  most  efficient  op- 
ponents of  popery.  "  The  Puritans,"  said  Burleigh,  "  are 
over-squeamish  and  nice,  yet  their  careful  catechising  and 
diligent  preaching  lessen  and  diminish  the  papistical  num- 
bers." But  for  the  Puritans,  the  old  religion  would  have 
retained  the  affections  of  the  multitude.  If  Elizabeth 
reformed  the  court,  the  ministers,  whom  she  persecuted, 
reformed  the  commons.  In  Scotland,  where  they  prevailed, 
they,  by  their  system  of  schools,  lifted  the  nation  far  above 
any  other  in  Europe,  excepting,  perhaps,  some  cantons  of 
Switzerland.  That  the  English  people  became  Protestant 
is  due  to  the  Puritans.  How,  then,  could  the  party  be  sub- 
dued ?  The  spirit  of  these  brave  and  conscientious  men 
could  not  be  broken.  The  queen  gave  her  orders  to  the 
archbishop  of  Canterbury,  "  that  no  man  should  be  suffered 
to  decline,  either  on  the  left  or  on  the  right  hand,  from  the 
drawn  line  limited  by  authority,  and  by  her  laws  and  in- 
junctions." The  vehemence  of  persecution,  which  compre- 
hended one  third  of  all  the  ecclesiastics  of  England,  roused 
the  sufferers  to  struggle  fiercely  for  self-protecting  and 
avenging  power  in  the  state,  and,  through  the  state,  in  the 
national  church. 

Meantime,  the  party  of  the  Independents,  or  Brownists  as 
they  were  scornfully  called,  shading  into  that  of  the  Puritans, 
were  pursued  into  their  hiding-places  with  relentless  fury. 
Yet,  in  all  their  sorrows,  they  manifested  the  intensest  love 
for  their  native  country,  and  formed  a  part  of  that  wonder- 
ful people  which  was  then  renewing  its  life  with  an  unbounded 
energy  that  waked  the  highest  genius  at  home,  and  in  its 
influence  reached  to  the  farthest  parts  of  the  world  and  to 
all  succeeding  ages.  The  pious  zeal  of  the  popular  reformers 
made  them  devoted  to  the  queen,  whom  Rome  and  the  Span- 
iards had  forced,  against  her  will,  to  become  the  leading 
prince  of  the  Protestant  world. 

In  November,  1502,  "  this  humble  petition  of  her 

««.      highness'  faithful  subjects,  falsely  called  Brownists," 

was  addressed  to  the  privy  council :  "  Whereas,  we, 


1593.  THE  PILGRIMS.  ---5 

her  majesty's  natural  born  subjects,  true  and  loyal,  now  lying, 
many  of  us,  in  other  countries,  as  men  exiled  her  highness'  do- 
minions; and  the  rest,  which  remain  within  her  grace's  land, 
greatly  distressed  through  imprisonment  and  other  great 
troubles,  sustained  only  for  some  matters  of  conscience,  in 
which  our  most  lamentable  estate  we  cannot  in  that  measure 
perform  the  duty  of  subjects  as  we  desire  :  and,  also, 
whereas  means  is  now  offered  for  our  being  in  a  foreign  1592. 
and  far  country  which  lieth  to  the  west  from  hence,  in 
the  province  of  Canada,  where  by  the  providence  of  the  Al- 
mighty, and  her  majesty's  most  gracioits  favor,  we  may  not 
only  worship  God  as  we  are  in  conscience  persuaded  by 
his  Word,  but  also  do  unto  her  majesty  and  our  country 
great  good  service,  and  in  time  also  greatly  annoy  that 
bloody  and  persecuting  Spaniard  about  the  Bay  of  Mexico,  — 
our  most  humble  suit  is  that  it  may  please  your  honors  to 
be  a  means  unto  her  excellent  majesty,  that  with  her  most 
gracious  favor  and  protection  we  may  peaceably  depart 
thither,  and  there  remaining  to  be  accounted  her  majesty's 
faithful  and  loving  subjects,  to  whom  we  owe  all  duty  and 
obedience  in  the  Lord,  promising  hereby  and  taking  God  to 
record,  who  searcheth  the  hearts  of  all  people,  that,  where- 
soever we  become,  we  will  by  the  grace  of  God  live  and  die 
faithful  to  her  highness  and  this  land  of  our  nativity." 

The  prayer  was  unheeded.  No  one  at  court  in  that  day 
would  suffer  Independents  to  plant  a  colony  or  live  in  peace 
in  England.  "  As  for  those  which  we  call  Brownists,"  wrote 
Bacon,  in  159-,  "being,  when  they  wore  at  the  most,  a  very 
small  number  of  very  silly  and  base  people,  here  and  there 
in  corners  dispersed,  they  are  now,  thanks  to  God,  by  the 
good  remedies  that  have  boon  used,  suppressed  and  worn 
out ;  so  that  there  is  scarce  any  news  of  them." 

Yet,  in  the  very  next  year,  it  was  said  by  Raleigh,  in  par- 
liament, that  there  were  in    England  twenty  thousand  of 
those  who  frequented   conventicles.     The  teaehers  of  new 
truths  have  often  been  exiled  or  slain.     It  was  pro- 
posed to  banish  them,  as  the  Moors  had  been  banished       ««. 
from  Spain.   To  root  out  the  scot  which  was  become 
the  depository  of  the  principles  of  reform,  an  act  of  parlia- 

VOL.  I.  15 


V 

226  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VHL 

ment  of  1593  ordered  those  who  for  a  month  should  be  absent 
from  the  English  service  to  be  interrogated  as  to  their  belief, 
and  menaced  obstinate  non-conformists  with  exile  or  with 
death.  For  the  moment,  under  the  ruthless  policy  of  Whit- 
gift  and  the  queen,  John  Greenwood  and  Henry  Barrow,  both 
educated  in  the  university  at  Cambridge,  the  former  a  regu- 
larly ordained  minister,  the  latter  for  some  years  a  member 
of  Gray's  Inn,  London,  after  an  imprisonment  of  about  seven 
years,  were  selected  by  Whitgift  for  execution.  Burleigh  in- 
terposed and  "  gave  the  archbishop  sound  taxing  words,  and 
he  used  some  speech  with  the  queen,  but  was  not  seconded 
by  any."  Under  the  gallows  at  Tyburn,  with  the  ropes  about 
their  necks,  they  prayed  for  England  and  England's  queen  ; 
and  so,  on  an  April  morning,  were  hanged  for  dissent. 

John  Penry,  a  Welshman,  who  had  taken  his  first  de- 
gree at  Cambridge  and  had  become  master  of  arts  at 
Oxford,  a  man  of  faultless  life,  a  preacher  of  the  gospel 
to  the  Welsh,  was  convicted  at  Westminster  Hall  of  the 
same  seditiousness.  "  In  the  earnest  desire  I  had  to  see 
the  gospel  in  my  native  country,"  so  he  wrote  to  Lord 
Burleigh,  "  I  might  well,  as  I  confess  in  my  published  writ- 
ings, forget  my  own  danger  ;  but  my  loyalty  to  my  prince 
did  I  never  forget.  And,  being  now  to  end  my  days  before 
I  am  come  to  the  one  half  of  my  years  in  the  likely  course 
of  nature,  I  leave  unto  such  of  my  countrymen  as  the  Lord 
is  to  raise  after  me  the  accomplishing  of  that  work  which, 
in  the  calling  of  my  country  unto  the  knowledge  of  Christ's 
blessed  gospel,  I  began."  His  protestation  after  sentence 
was  referred  to  the  judges,  who  reported  him  guilty  of  sep 
aration  from  the  church  of  England,  and  of  "  the  justification 
of  Barrow  and  Greenwood  as  holy  martyrs."  Archbishop 

Whitgift  was  the  first  to  affix  his  name  to  the  death 
1593.  warrant ;  and  on  the  seventh  of  June,  1593,  just  as 

the  sun  was  going  down  towards  the  west,  one  of  the 
purest  men  of  England,  exemplarily  faithful  to  his  country 
and  to  its  prince,  suffered  martyrdom  on  the  gallows. 

"  Take  my  poor  desolate  widow  and  my  mess  of  father- 
less and  friendless  orphans  with  you  into  exile ;  you  shall 
yet  find  days  of  peace  and  rest,  if  you  continue  faithful," 


1602.  THE  PILGRIMS.  227 

was  one  of  the  last  messages  of  Penry  to  a  company  of 
believers  in  London  whom  banishment,  with  the  loss  of 
goods,  was  likely  to  betide.  Francis  Johnson,  being  ar- 
raigned, pleaded  that  "the  great  charter  of  England  grant- 
eth  that  the  church  of  Christ  shall  be  free,  and  have  all 
her  liberties  inviolable  ; "  but,  after  a  close  imprisonment 
in  jail  for  more  than  a  year,  he  was  sentenced  to  abjure 
the  realm.  He  it  was  who  gathered  the  exiled  Southwark 
church  in  Amsterdam,  where  it  continued  as  an  example  for 
a  century. 

Our  narrative  leads  us  next  to  the  manor-house  of 
Scrooby  in  Nottinghamshire,  where  William  Brew-  ^{jjjg*.0 
ster,  who  had  been  educated  at  Cambridge,  had  been 
employed  in  public  affairs  by  an  English  secretary  of  state, 
had  taken  an  effective  part  in  an  embassy  to  the  Nether- 
lands, and  had  seen  near  at  hand  the  duplicity  and  hard- 
heartedness  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  resided,  first  as  assistant, 
then  as  successor  to  his  father  in  a  small  office  under  the 
queen.  He  was  in  good  esteem  amongst  the  gentlemen  of 
those  parts,  especially  the  godly  and  religious.  He  furthered 
religion  by  the  procuring  of  good  preachers  to  all  places 
thereabouts,  charging  himself  most  commonly  deepest,  and 
sometimes  above  his  means.  By  the  tyranny  of  the  bishops 
against  godly  preachers  and  people,  in  silencing  the  one  and 
persecuting  the  other,  he  and  many  more  of  those  times 
began  to  look  further  into  particulars,  and  to  see  into  the 
unlawfulness  of  their  callings,  and  the  burden  of  many  anti- 
Christian  corruptions,  which  both  he  and  they  endeavored 
to  cast  off. 

The  age  of  the  queen,  and  the  chances  of  favor  to  Puri- 
tanism from  her  successor,  conspired  to  check  persecution. 
The  Independents  had,  it  is  true,  been  nearly  exterminated ; 
but  the  number  of  the  non-conforming  clergy,  after  forty 
years  of  molestation,  had  increased,  their  strength  was  more 
deeply  rooted  in  the  nation,  and  their  enmity  to  the  estab- 
lished order  was  irreconcilable.  Their  followers  constituted 
a  powerful  political  party,  inquired  into  the  nature  of  gov- 
ernment, in  parliament  opposed  monopolies,  limited  the 
royal  prerogative,  and  demanded  a  reform  of  ecclesiastical 


228  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VHL 

abuses.  Popular  liberty,  which  used  to  animate  its  friends 
by  appeals  to  the  examples  of  ancient  republics,  now  lis- 
tened to  a  voice  from  the  grave  of  Wycliffe,  from  the  vigils 
of  Calvin.  Victorious  over  her  foreign  enemies,  Elizabeth 
never  could  crush  the  religious  party,  of  which  she  held  the 
increase  dangerous  to  the  state.  In  the  latter  years  of  her 
reign,  her  popularity  declined ;  and  her  death  was  little  re- 
gretted. "  In  four  days  she  was  forgotten." 

The  accession  of  King  James  would,  it  was  hoped, 
April's  introduce  a  milder  system.  He  had  called  the  church 
of  Scotland  "  the  sincerest  kirk  of  the  world ; " 
he  had  censured  the  service  of  England  as  "an  evil  said 
mass."  Would  he  retain  for  Puritans  the  favor  which  he 
had  promised  ? 

The  pupil  of  Buchanan  was  not  destitute  of  learning  nor 
unskilled  in  rhetoric.  He  had  aimed  at  the  reputation  of 
a  "most  learned  clerk,"  and  so  successfully  that  Bacon  pro- 
nounced him  incomparable  for  learning  among  kings ;  and 
Sully,  who  knew  him  well,  esteemed  him  the  wisest  fool 
in  Europe.  At  the  mature  age  of  thirty-six,  the  imbecile 
man  escaped  from  the  austere  supervision  of  his  morals 
in  Scotland  to  freedom  of  self-indulgence  in  the  English 
court,  which  he  disgraced  by  the  frivolity  of  his  amuse- 
ments and  the  unblushing  shamelessness  of  manners  which 
he  allowed.  He  was  not  destitute  of  shrewdness;  but, 
afflicted  from  his  birth  with  an  ungainly  frame  and  an 
overpowering  timorousness  of  nature,  his  will,  like  his  pas- 
sions, was  feeble,  so  that  he  could  never  carry  out  a  wise 
resolution ;  and,  in  his  love  of  ease,  he  had  no  fixed  princi- 
ples of  conduct  or  belief.  He  could  be  governed  by  being 
overawed,  and  was  easily  intimidated  by  the  vulgar  inso- 
lence of  a  favorite.  Moreover,  this  cowardice,  which  was 
the  core  of  his  character,  led  him  to  be  false ;  and  he  could 
vindicate  deception  and  cunning  as  worthy  of  a  king.  But  he 
was  an  awkward  liar,  rather  than  a  crafty  dissembler.  He 
could,  before  parliament,  call  God  to  witness  his  sincerity, 
when  he  was  already  resolved  on  being  insincere. 

To  a  person  of  such  weakness,  perpetual  flattery  was 
needed  to  preserve  his  self-complacency.  No  hyperboles  of 


1603.  THE  PILGRIMS.  229 

praise  could  startle  his  egregious  vain-glory.  Explaining 
''why  the  devil  doth  work  more  with  auncient  women 
than  with  others,"  witchcraft,  of  the  nature  of  which  Bacon 
declares  that  he  had  "  observed  excellently  well,"  was  at  his 
solicitation,  in  a  parliament  of  which  Bacon  and  Coke  were 
members,  made  a  capital  offence ;  and  hardly  a  year  of  his 
reign  went  by  but  some  helpless  crone  perished  on  the  gal- 
lows in  homage  to  his  dialectics.  Challenging  the  praise  of 
Europe  as  a  subtle  controversialist,  he  wrote  a  tract  to 
refute  the  heresies  of  a  professor  at  Leyden,  whom  he  rec- 
ommended to  be  burnt;  and  by  whose  dismissal  from  his 
professorship  he  would  hardly  be  pacified.  Once,  in  his  own 
country,  James  indulged  his  vanity  in  a  theological  discus- 
sion ;  and,  when  the  argument  was  over,  procured  himself  the 
double  gratification  of  consigning  his  opponent  to  the  stake, 
and  spiting  Coke  who  held  the  execution  to  be  illegal.  His 
mind  had  been  early  imbued  with  the  doctrines  of  Calvin- 
ism ;  but  he  loved  arbitrary  power  better  than  the  tenets  of 
Knox. 

Such  was  the  king  of  England,  at  a  period  when  the 
limits  of  royal  authority  were  not  as  yet  clearly  defined. 
He  came  to  a  country  where  the  institution  of  a  parliament 
was  in  existence ;  and  he  desired  "  to  get  rid  of  it,"  being 
convinced  that  its  privileges  were  not  an  ancient,  undoubted 
right  and  inheritance,  but  were  derived  solely  from  the  grace 
and  favor  of  his  predecessors  and  himself.  His  experience 
in  Scotland  had  persuaded  him  that  Presbyterian  government 
in  the  church  would,  in  a  monarchy,  bring  forth  per- 
petual rebellions  ;  and  while  he  denied  the  divine  in-  leos. 
stitution  of  bishops  and  cared  not  for  the  profit  the 
church  might  reap  from  them,  he  believed  they  would 
prove  useful  instruments  to  turn  a  monarchy  with  a  parlia- 
ment into  absolute  dominion. 

The  English  hierarchy  had  feared  in  their  new  sovereign 
the  approach  of  a  "  Scottish  mist ; "  but  the  borders  of 
Scotland  were  hardly  passed,  before  James  began  to  identify 
the  interests  of  the  English  church  with  those  of  his  prerog- 
ative. "  No  bishop,  no  king,"  was  a  maxim  often  in  his 
mouth.  Whitgift  was  aware  that  the  Puritans  were  too 


2oO  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIIL 

numerous  to  be  borne  down  ;  "  I  Lave  not  been  greatly  quiet 
in  mind,"  said  the  disappointed  archbishop,  "  the  vipers  are 
so  many."  But  James  was  not  as  yet  conscious  of  their 
strength.  While  he  was  in  his  progress  to  London,  more 
than  seven  hundred  of  them  presented  the  "  millenary  peti- 
tion "  for  a  redress  of  ecclesiastical  grievances.  He  was 
never  disposed  to  show  them  favor ;  but  a  decent  respect 
for  the  party  in  which  he  had  been  bred,  joined  to  a  desire 
of  displaying  his  talents  for  theological  debate,  induced  him 
to  appoint  a  conference  at  Hampton  court. 

The  conference,  held  in  January,  1604,  was  distin- 
guished on  the  part  of  the  king  by  a  strenuous  vindi- 
cation of  the  church  of  England.  Refusing  to  discuss  the 
question  of  its  power  in  things  indifferent,  he  substituted 
authority  for  argument,  and,  where  he  could  not  produce 
conviction,  demanded  obedience  :  "  I  will  have  none  of  that 
liberty  as  to  ceremonies  ;  I  will  have  one  doctrine,  one  dis- 
cipline, one  religion  in  substance  and  in  ceremony.  Never 
speak  more  to  that  point,  how  far  you  are  bound  to  obey." 

The  Puritans  desired  permission  occasionally  to  assemble, 
and  at  their  meetings  to  have  the  liberty  of  free  discussions ; 
but  the  king  interrupted  their  petition  :  "  You  are  aiming 
at  a  Scot's  presbytery,  which  agrees  with  monarchy  as  well 
as  God  and  the  devil.  Then  Jack  and  Tom  and  Will  and 
Dick  shall  meet,  and  at  their  pleasure  censure  me  and  my 
council,  and  all  our  proceedings.  Then  Will  shall  stand  up 
and  say,  It  must  be  thus :  then  Dick  shall  reply  and  say, 
Nay,  marry,  but  we  will  have  it  thus  ;  and,  therefore,  here  I 
must  once  more  reiterate  my  former  speech,  and  say,  The 
king  forbids."  Turning  to  the  bishops,  he  avowed  his  belief 
that  the  hierarchy  was  the  firmest  supporter  of  the  throne. 
Of  the  Puritans,  he  added  :  "  I  will  make  them  conform,  or 
I  will  harry  them  out  of  the  land,  or  else  worse,"  "  only 
hang  them;  that's  all." 

On  the  last  day  of  the  conference,  the  king  defended  the 
necessity  of  subscription,  concluding  that,  "  if  any  would  not 
be  quiet  and  show  their  obedience,  they  were  worthy  to  be 
hanged."  He  advocated  the  high  commission  and  inquisi- 
torial oaths,  despotic  authority  and  its  instruments.  A  few 


1604.  THE  PILGRIMS.  231 

alterations  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  were  the  only 
reforms  which  the  conference  effected.  It  was  agi'eed  that 
a  time  should  be  set,  within  which  all  should  conform,  or  be 
removed.  Latimer  and  Ridley  and  Hooper,  and  Cranmcr 
if  he  had  remained  true  to  his  latest  convictions,  the  men 
whose  martyrdom  lighted  the  candle  for  the  reform  of  Eng- 
land, had  they  come  again,  must  have  been  driven  out  of  the 
church  of  which  King  James  was  the  head.  The  king  had 
self-complacently  insulted  the  Puritans  with  vulgar  rudeness 
and  indecorous  jests,  and  had  talked  much  Latin  ;  had  spoken 
a  part  of  the  time  in  the  presence  of  the  nobility  of  Scotland 
and  England,  willing  admirers  of  his  skill  in  debate  and  of 
his  marvellous  learning ;  and  he  was  elated  by  the  eulogies 
of  the  churchmen.  "  Your  majesty  speaks  by  the  special 
assistance  of  God's  spirit,"  said  the  aged  Whitgift.  Bishop 
Bancroft,  on  his  knees,  exclaimed  that  his  heart  melted  for 
joy,  "  because  God  had  given  England  such  a  king  as,  since 
Christ's  time,  has  not  been  ; "  and,  in  a  foolish  letter,  James 
boasted  that  "  he  had  soundly  peppered  off  the  Puritans." 

Whitgift,  the  archbishop,  a  man  of  great  consistency  of 
character,  estimable  for  his  learning,  respected  and  beloved 
by  his  party,  desired  not  to  live  till  the  next  parliament 
should  assemble,  for  the  Puritans  would  have  the  majority ; 
and  grief,  it  was  thought,  hastened  his  death,  six  weeks  after 
the  close  of  the  conference. 

In  the  parliament  which  assembled  in  1604,  the  party 
opposed  to  the  church  asserted  their  liberties  with  such 
tenacity  and  vigor,  that  King  James  began  to  hate  them  as 
embittering  royalty  itself.  "  I  had  rather  live  like  a  hermit 
in  the  forest,"  he  writes,  "  than  be  a  king  over  such  a  people 
as  the  pack  of  Puritans  are  that  overrule  the  lower  house." 
"  The  will  of  man  or  angel  cannot  devise  a  pleasing  answer 
to  their  propositions,  except  I  should  pull  the  crown  not 
on-ly  from  my  own  head,  but  also  from  the  head  of  all  those 
that  shall  succeed  unto  me,  and  lay  it  down  at  their  feet." 
At  the  opening  of  the  session,  he  had  offered  "  to  meet 
the  Catholics  in  the  midway ; "  while  he  added  that  "  the 
sect  of  Puritans  is  insufferable  in  any  well-governed  com- 
monwealth." At  the  next  session  of  parliament,  he  de- 


232  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIIL 

clared  the  Roman  Catholics  to  be  faithful  subjects,  but 
expressed  detestation  of  the  Puritans,  as  worthy  of  fire  for 
their  opinions.  Against  the  latter  he  inveighed  bitterly  in 
council,  saying  "  that  the  revolt  in  the  Low  Countries  began 
for  matters  of  religion,  and  so  did  all  the  troubles  in  Scot- 
land ;  that  his  mother  and  he,  from  their  cradles,  had  been 
haunted  with  a  Puritan  devil,  which  he  feared  would  not 
leave  him  to  his  grave  ;  and  that  he  would  hazard  his  crown 
but  he  would  suppress  those  malicious  spirits." 

The  convocation  of  the  clergy  were  very  ready  to  decree 
against  obstinate  Puritans  excommunication  and  all  its  con- 
sequences. Bancroft,  the  successor  of  Whitgift,  required 
conformity  with  unrelenting  rigor;  King  James  issued  a 
proclamation  of  equal  severity ;  and  it  is  asserted,  perhaps 
with  exaggeration,  yet  by  those  who  had  opportunities  of 
judging  rightly,  that  in  the  year  1604  alone  three 

1605.  hundred  Puritan  ministers  were  silenced,  imprisoned, 
or  exiled.     The  moderate  men,  who  assented  to  ex- 
ternal ceremonies  as  to  things  indifferent,  were  unwilling 
to  enforce  them  by  merciless  cruelty ;  the  oppressed  were 
neither  intimidated  nor  weakened  ;  and  resisted  the  surplice, 
not  as  a  mere  vestment,  but  as  the  symbol  of  a  priest,  or- 
dained by  a  bishop,  imposed  upon  a  church,  and  teaching  by 
authority,  in  opposition  to  the  right  of  the  individual  to  found 
belief  on  conviction,  and  the  implied  right  of  the  congrega- 
tion to  elect  its  own  teachers.     Yet  the  clergy  proceeded 
with  a  consistent  disregard  of  the  national  liberties.     The 
importation  of  foreign  books  was  impeded;  and  a  severe 
censorship   of    the    press   was   exercised    by  the   bishops. 

Frivolous   acts  were  denounced  as  ecclesiastical  of- 

1606.  fences.    The   convocation   of    1606,   in   a  series   of 
canons,   denied    every   doctrine   of    popular   rights, 

asserting  the  superiority  of  the  king  to  the  parliament  and 
the  laws,  and  admitting  no  exception  to  the  duty  of  passive 
obedience.  Thus  the  conspiracy  between  the  Episcopal 
Church  and  the  court  in  favor  of  absolute  monarchy  was 
consummated.  The  English  separatists  and  non-conform- 
ists became  the  sole  protectors  of  the  system  which  gave  to 
England  its  distinguishing  glory.  "  The  stern  and  exasper- 


1606.  THE  PILGRIMS.  233 

ated  Puritans,"  writes  Hallam,  "  were  the  depositaries  of  the 
sacred  fire  of  liberty."  "  So  absolute  was  the  authority  of 
the  crown,"  says  Hume,  "  that  the  precious  spark  of  liberty 
had  been  kindled  and  was  preserved  by  the  Puritans  alone ; 
and  it  was  to  this  sect  that  the  English  owe  the  whole  free- 
dom of  their  constitution."  The  lines  of  the  contending  par- 
tics  were  sharply  drawn.  Immediate  success  was  obtained 
by  the  established  authority ;  but  the  contest  was  to  be  trans- 
mitted to  another  continent  and  to  the  next  generation. 
"Would  victory  ultimately  belong  to  the  churchmen  or  to 
the  Puritans,  to  the  monarch  or  to  the  people?  The 
interests  of  human  freedom  were  at  issue  on  the  contest. 

In  the  very  year  of  this  convocation,  "  a  poor  peo- 
ple "  in  the  north  of  England,  in  towns  and  villages  leoe. 
of  Nottinghamshire,  Lincolnshire,  and  the  borders  of 
Yorkshire,  in  and  near  Scrooby,  had  "  become  enlightened 
by  the  word  of  God.  "  Presently  they  were  both  scoffed  and 
scorned  by  the  profane  multitude  ;  and  their  ministers,  urged 
with  the  yoke  of  subscription,"  were,  by  the  increase  of 
troubles,  led  "  to  see  further,"  that  not  only  "  the  beggarly 
ceremonies  were  monuments  of  idolatry,"  but  also  "  that  the 
lordly  power  of  the  prelates  ought  not  to  be  submitted 
to."  Many  of  them,  therefore,  "  whose  hearts  the  Lord 
had  touched  with  heavenly  zeal  for  his  truth,"  resolved, 
"  whatever  it  might  cost  them,  to  shake  off  the  anti-Chris- 
tian bondage,  and,  as  the  Lord's  free  people,  to  join  them- 
selves by  a  covenant  into  a  church  estate  in  the  fellowship 
of  the  gospel."  Of  the  same  faith  with  Calvin,  heedless  of 
acts  of  parliament,  they  rejected  "  the  offices  and  callings, 
the  courts  and  canons"  of  bishops,  and,  renouncing  all 
obedience  to  human  authority  in  spiritual  things,  asserted 
for  themselves  an  unlimited  and  never  ending  right  to 
make  advances  in  truth,  and  "  walk  in  all  the  ways  which 
God  had  made  known  or  should  make  known  to  them." 

"  The  gospel  is  every  man's  right ;  and  it  is  not  to  be 
endured  that  any  one  should  be  kept  therefrom.  But  the 
evangel  is  an  open  doctrine ;  it  is  bound  to  no  place,  and 
moves  along  freely  under  heaven,  like  the  star,  which  ran 
in  the  sky  to  show  the  wizards  from  the  east  where  Christ 


234  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

was  born.  Do  not  dispute  with  the  prince  for  place.  Let 
the  community  choose  their  own  pastor,  and  support  him 
out  of  their  own  estates.  If  the  prince  will  not  suffer  it, 
let  the  pastor  flee  into  another  land,  and  let  those  go  with 
him  who  will,  as  Christ  teaches."  Such  was  the  counsel  of 
Luther,  on  reading  "  the  twelve  articles  "  of  the  insurgent 
peasants  of  Suabia.  What  Luther  advised,  what  Calvin 
planned,  was  carried  into  effect  by  this  rural  community  of 
Englishmen. 

The  reformed  church  chose  for  one  of  their  ministers 
John  Robinson,  "  a  man  not  easily  to  be  paralleled,"  "  of  a 
most  learned,  polished,  and  modest  spirit."  Their  ruling 
elder  was  William  Brewster,  who  "  was  their  special  stay 
and  help."  They  were  beset  and  watched  night  and  day 
by  the  agents  of  prelacy.  For  about  a  year  they  kept  their 
meetings  every  sabbath  in  one  place  or  another;  exercis- 
ing the  worship  of  God  among  themselves,  notwithstanding 
all  the  diligence  and  malice  of  their  adversaries.  But,  as 
the  humane  ever  decline  to  enforce  the  laws  dictated  by 
bigotry,  the  office  devolves  on  the  fanatic  or  the  savage. 
Hence  the  severity  of  their  execution  usually  surpassed  the 
intention  of  their  authors ;  and  the  peaceful  members  of 
"  the  poor,  persecuted  flock  of  Christ,"  despairing  of  rest 
in  England,  resolved  to  go  into  exile. 

Holland,  in  its  controversy  with  Spain,  had  displayed 
republican  virtues,  and,  in  the  reformation  of  its  churches, 
had  imitated  the  discipline  of  Calvin.  In  its  greatest  dan- 
gers, it  had  had  England  for  its  ally ;  at  one  time,  it  had 
almost  become  a  part  of  the  English  dominions ;  the  "  cau- 
tionary "  towns  were  still  garrisoned  by  English  regiments, 
some  of  which  were  friendly  to  the  separatists;  and  we 
have  seen  that  William  Brewster  had  himself  served  as  a 
diplomatist  in  the  Low  Countries.  Thus  the  emigrants 
were  attracted  to  Holland,  "  where,  they  heard,  was  free- 
dom of  religion  for  all  men." 

The  departure  from  England  was   effected  with 

1607.       much  suffering  and  hazard.     The  first   attempt,  in 

1607,  was  prevented;  but  the   magistrates  checked 

the  ferocity  of  the  subordinate  officers ;  and,  after  a  month's 


1609.  THE  PILGRBIS.  235 

arrest  of  the  whole  company,  seven  only  of  the  principal 
men  were  detained  a  little  longer  in  prison. 

The  next  spring  the  design  was  renewed.  As  if 
it  had  been  a  crime  to  escape  from  persecution,  an  leos. 
unfrequented  heath  in  Lincolnshire,  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Humber,  was  the  place  of  secret  meeting.  Just  as 
a  boat  was  bearing  a  part  of  the  emigrants  to  their  ship,  a 
company  of  horsemen  appeared  in  pursuit,  and  seized  on 
the  helpless  women  and  children  who  had  not  yet  advent- 
ured on  the  surf.  "  Pitiful  it  was  to  see  the  heavy  case  of 
these  poor  women  in  distress;  what  weeping  and  crying 
on  every  side."  But,  when  they  were  apprehended,  it 
seemed  impossible  to  punish  and  imprison  wives  and  chil- 
dren for  no  other  crime  than  that  they  would  not  part  from 
their  husbands  and  fathers.  They  could  not  be  sent  home, 
for  "they  had  no  homes  to  go  to ; "  so  that,  at  last,  the 
magistrates  were  "  glad  to  be  rid  of  them  on  any  terms," 
"  though,  in  the  mean  time,  they,  poor  souls,  endured  misery 
enough."  Such  was  the  flight  of  Robinson  and  Brewster 
and  their  followers  from  the  land  of  their  fathers. 

Their  arrival  in  Amsterdam,  in  1608,  was  but  the  begin- 
ning of  their  wanderings.  "  They  knew  they  were  PIL- 
GRIMS, and  looked  not  much  on  those  things,  but  lifted  up 
their  eyes  to  heaven,  their  dearest  country,  and 
quieted  their  spirits."  In  1609,  removing  to  Ley-  ieo9. 
den,  "they  saw  poverty  coming  on  them  like  an 
armed  man ; "  but,  being  "  careful  to  keep  their  word,  and 
painful  and  diligent  in  their  callings,"  they  attained  "  a 
comfortable  condition,  grew  in  the  gifts  and  grace  of  the 
spirit  of  God,  and  lived  together  in  peace  and  love  and  holi- 
ness." "  Never,"  said  the  magistrates  of  the  city,  "  never 
did  we  have  any  suit  or  accusation  against  any  of  them ; " 
and,  but  for  fear  of  offence  to  King  James,  they  would 
have  met  with  public  favor.  "Many  came  there  from 
different  parts  of  England,  so  as  they  grew  a  great  con- 
gregation." "  Such  was  the  humble  zeal  and  fervent  love 
of  this  people  towards  God  and  his  ways,  and  their  single- 
heartedness  and  sincere  affection,  one  towards  another," 
that  they  seemed  to  come  surpassingly  near  "  the  primitive 


2-36  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIH 

pattern  of  the  first  churches."  A  clear  and  well-written 
apology  of  their  discipline  was  published  by  Robinson,  who 
also,  in  the  controversy  on  free-will,  as  the  champion  of 
orthodoxy,  "began  to  be  terrible  to  the  Arminians,"  and 
disputed  in  the  university  with  such  power,  that,  as  his 
friends  assert,  "  the  truth  had  a  famous  victory." 

The  career  of  maritime  discovery  had,  meantime,  been 
pursued  with  intrepidity,  and  rewarded  with  success.  The 
voyages  of  Gosnold,  Waymouth,  Smith,  and  Hudson ;  the 
enterprise  of  Raleigh,  Delaware,  and  Gorges ;  the  compila- 
tions of  Eden,  Willes,  and  Hakluyt, —  had  filled  the  com- 
mercial world  with  wonder ;  Calvinists  of  the  French 
church  had  sought,  though  vainly,  to  plant  themselves  in 
Brazil,  in  Carolina,  and,  with  De  Monts,  in  Acadia ;  while 
weighty  reasons,  often  and  seriously  discussed,  inclined 
the  pilgrims-  to  -change  their  abode.  They  had  been  bred 
to  the  pursuits  of  husbandry,  and  in  Holland  they  were 
compelled  to  learn  mechanical  trades ;  Brewster  became  a 
teacher  of  English  and  a  printer ;  Bradford,  who  had  been 
educated  as  a  farmer,  learned  the  art  of  dyeing  silk.  The 
language  of  the  Dutch  never  became  pleasantly  familiar, 
and  their  manners  still  less  so.  They  lived  but  as  men 
in  exile.  Many  of  their  English  friends  would  not  come 
to  them,  or  departed  from  them  weeping.  "  Their  continual 
labors,  with  other  crosses  and  sorrows,  left  them  in  danger 
to  scatter  or  sink."  "  Their  children,  sharing  their  parents' 
burdens,  bowed  under  the  weight,  and  were  becoming 
decrepit  in  early  youth."  Conscious  of  ability  to  act  a 
higher  part  in  the  great  drama  of  humanity,  they 
1617.  were  moved  by  "  a  hope  and  inward  zeal  of  advanc- 
ing the  gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  re- 
mote parts  of  the  New  World ;  yea,  though  they  should 
be  but  as  stepping-stones  unto  others  for  performing  so 
great  a  work." 

"Upon  their  talk  of  removing,  sundry  of  the  Dutch 
would  have  them  go  under  them,  and  made  them  large 
offers;"  but  the  pilgrims  were  attached  to  their  nation 
ality  as  Englishmen,  and  to  the  language  of  their  line.  A 
secret  but  deeply  seated  love  of  their  country  led  them  to 


1617.  THE  PILGRIMS.  237 

the  generous  purpose  of  recovering  the  protection  of  Eng- 
land by  enlarging  her  dominions,  and  a  conscious- 
ness of  their  worth  cheered  them  on  to  make  a  settle-       1017. 
ment  of  their  own.     They  were  "restless"  with  the 
desire  to  live  once  more  under  the  government  of  their 
native  land. 

And  whither  should  they  go  to  acquire  a  province  for 
King  James  ?  The  fertility  and  wealth  of  Guiana  had  been 
painted  in  dazzling  colors  by  Raleigh ;  but  the  terrors  of 
the  tropical  climate,  the  wavering  pretensions  of  England 
to  the  soil,  and  the  proximity  of  bigoted  Catholics,  led  them 
rather  to  look  towards  "  the  most  northern  parts  of  Vir- 
ginia," hoping,  under  the  general  government  of  that  prov- 
ince, "  to  live  in  a  distinct  body  by  themselves."  To  obtain 
the  consent  of  the  London  company,  John  Carver,  with 
Robert  Cushman,  in  1617,  repaired  to  England.  They  took 
with  them  "  seven  articles,"  from  the  members  of  the  church 
at  Leyden,  to  be  submitted  to  the  council  in  England  for 
Virginia.  These  articles  discussed  the  relations  which,  as 
separatists  in  religion,  they  bore  to  their  prince ;  and  they 
adopted  the  theory  which  the  admonitions  of  Luther  and  a 
century  of  persecution  had  developed  as  the  common  rule 
of  plebeian  sectaries  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  They 
expressed  their  concurrence  in  the  creed  of  the  Anglican 
church,  and  a  desire  of  spiritual  communion  with  its  mem- 
bers. Towards  the  king  and  all  civil  authority  derived  from 
him,  including  bishops,  whose  civil  authority  they  alone 
recognised,  they  promised,  as  they  would  have  done  to  Nero 
and  the  Roman  pontifex,  "  obedience  in  all  things,  active  if 
the  thing  commanded  be  not  against  God's  word,  or  passive 
if  it  be."  They  denied  all  power  to  ecclesiastical  bodies, 
unless  it  were  given  by  the  temporal  magistrate.  They 
pledged  themselves  to  honor  their  superiors,  and  to  preserve 
unity  of  spirit  in  peace  with  all  men.  "  Divers  selecte  gen- 
tlemen of  the  council  for  Virginia  were  well  satisfied  with 
their  statement,  and  resolved  to  set  forward  their  desire." 
The  London  company  listened  very  willingly  to  their  pro- 
posal, so  that  their  agents  "  found  God  going  along  with 
them  ;  "  and,  through  the  influence  of  "  Sir  Edwin  Sandys, 


238  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

a  religious  gentleman  then  living,"  a  patent  might  at  once 
have  been  taken,  had  not  the  envoys  desired  first  to  consult 
"  the  multitude  "  at  Leyden. 

On  the  fifteenth  of  December,  1617,  the  pilgrims 
1617'  transmitted  their  formal  request,  signed  by  the  hands 
of  the  greatest  part  of  the  congregation.  "We  are  well 
weaned,"  added  Robinson  and  Brewster,  "  from  the  delicate 
milk  of  our  mother  country,  and  inured  to  the  difficulties  of  a 
strange  land ;  the  people  are  industrious  and  frugal.  "We  are 
knit  together  as  a  body  in  a  most  sacred  covenant  of  the  Lord, 
of  the  violation  whereof  we  make  great  conscience,  and  by 
virtue  whereof  we  hold  ourselves  straitly  tied  to  all  care 
of  each  other's  good,  and  of  the  whole.  It  is  not  with  us 
as  with  men  whom  small  things  can  discourage." 

The  messengers  of  the  pilgrims,  satisfied  with  their  re- 
ception by  the  Virginia  company,  petitioned  the  king  for 
liberty  of  religion,  to  be  confirmed  under  the  king's  broad 
seal.  But  here  they  encountered  insurmountable  difficulties. 
Of  all  men  in  the  government  of  that  day,  Lord  Bacon  had 
given  the  most  attention  to  colonial  enterprise.  The  settle- 
ments of  the  Scotch  in  Ireland  ever  enjoyed  his  particular 
favor.  To  him,  as  "  to  the  encourager,  pattern,  and  per- 
fecter  of  all  vertuous  endeavors,"  Strachey  at  this  time  dedi- 
cated his  Historic  of  Travaile  into  Virginia ;  to  him  John 
Smith,  in  his  "  povertie,"  now  turned  for  encouragement  in 
colonizing  New  England,  as  to  "  a  chief  patron  of  his  country 
and  the  greatest  favorer  of  all  good  designs."  To  him  Sir 
George  Villiers,  who  was  lately  risen  to  the  state  of  favorite 
to  James,  addressed  himself  for  advice,  and  received  instruc- 
tions how  to  govern  himself  in  office. 

The  great  master  of  speculative  wisdom  should  have 
inculcated  freedom  of  conscience ;  but  for  that  he  knew 
too  little  of  religion.  He  saw  that  the  established  church, 
which  he  cherished  as  the  eye  of  England,  was  not  without 
blemish  ;  that  the  wrongs  of  the  Puritans  could  neither  be 
dissembled  nor  excused ;  that  the  silencing  of  ministers,  for 
the  sake  of  enforcing  the  ceremonies,  was,  in  the  scarcity  of 
good  preachers,  a  punishment  that  lighted  on  the  people ; 
and  he  esteemed  controversy  "  the  wind  by  which  truth  is 


1018.  THE  PILGTIIMS.  239 

winnowed."  But  Bacon  was  formed  for  contemplative  life, 
not  for  action  ;  his  will  was  feeble,  and  having  no  power  of 
resistance,  and  yet  an  incessant  yearning  for  vain  distinction 
and  display,  he  became  a  craven  courtier  and  an  intolerant 
statesman.  "  Discipline  by  bishops,"  said  he,  "  is  fittest  for 
monarchy  of  all  others.  The  tenets  of  separatists  and  sec- 
taries are  full  of  schism,  and  inconsistent  with  monarchy. 
The  king  will  beware  of  Anabaptists,  Brownists,  and  others 
of  their  kinds ;  a  little  connivency  sets  them  on  fire.  For 
the  discipline  of  the  church  in  colonies,  it  will  be  necessary 
that  it  agree  with  that  which  is  settled  in  England,  else  it 
will  make  a  schism  and  a  rent  in  Christ's  coat,  which  must 
be  seamless ;  and,  to  that  purpose,  it  will  be  fit  that  by  the 
king's  supreme  power  in  causes  ecclesiastical,  within  all  his 
dominions,  they  be  subordinate  under  some  bishop  and 
bishoprick  of  this  realm.  This  caution  is  to  be  observed, 
that  if  any  transplant  themselves  into  plantations  abroad, 
who  are  known  schismatics,  outlaws,  or  criminal  persons, 
they  be  sent  for  back  upon  the  first  notice." 

These  maxims  prevailed  at  the  council-board,  when  the 
envoys  from  the  independent  church  at  Ley  den  pre- 
ferred their  requests.  "  Who  shall  make  your  minis-  iei8. 
ters  ?  "  it  was  asked  of  them ;  and  they  answered, "  The 
power  of  making  them  is  in  the  church  ; "  and  the  avowal  of 
their  principle,  that  ordination  requires  no  bishop,  threatened 
to  spoil  all.  To  advance  the  dominions  of  England,  King 
James  esteemed  "  a  good  and  honest  motion  ;  and  fishing  was 
an  honest  trade,  the  apostles'  own  calling ;  "  yet  he  referred 
the  suit  to  the  prelates  of  Canterbury  and  London.  Even 
while  the  negotiations  were  pending,  a  royal  declaration 
constrained  the  Puritans  of  Lancashire  to  conform  or  leave 
the  kingdom ;  and  nothing  more  could  be  obtained  for  the 
wilds  of  America  than  an  informal  promise  of  neglect.  On 
this  the  community  relied,  being  advised  not  to  entangle 
themselves  with  the  bishops.  "  If  there  should  afterwards 
be  a  purpose  to  wrong  us,"  thus  they  communed  with  them- 
selves, "  though  we  had  a  seal  as  broad  as  the  house-floor, 
there  would  be  means  enough  found  to  recall  or  reverse  it. 
We  must  rest  herein  on  God's  providence." 


COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VHI. 

Better  hopes  seemed  to  dawn  when,  in  1619,  the 
London  company  for  Virginia  elected  for  their  treas- 
urer Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  who  from  the  first  had  befriended 
the  pilgrims.  Under  his  presidency,  so  writes  one  of  their 
number,  the  members  of  the  company  in  their  open  court 
"  demanded  our  ends  of  going ;  which  being  related,  they 
said  the  thing  was  of  God,  and  granted  a  large  patent." 
As  it  was  taken  in  the  name  of  one  who  failed  to  accom- 
pany the  expedition,  the  patent  was  never  of  any  service. 
And  besides ;  the  pilgrims,  after  investing  all  their  own 
means,  had  not  sufficient  capital  to  execute  their  schemes. 

In  this  extremity,  Robinson  looked  for  aid  to  the  Dutch. 
He  and  his  people  and  their  friends,  to  the  number  of  four 
hundred  families,  professed  themselves  well  inclined  to  emi- 
grate to  the  country  on  the  Hudson,  and  to  plant  there  a 
new  commonwealth  under  the  command  of  the  stadholder 
and  the  states-general.  The  West  India  company  was  will- 
ing to  transport  them  without  charge,  and  to  furnish  them 
with  cattle,  if  that  people  would  "  go  under  them ; "  the 
directors  petitioned  the  states-general  to  promise  protection 
to  the  enterprise  against  all  violence  from  other  potentates. 
But  such  a  promise  was  contrary  to  the  policy  of  the  Dutch 
government,  and  was  refused. 

The  members  of  the  church  of  Leyden  were  not  shaken 
in  their  purpose  of  removing  to  America  ;  and  ceasing  "  to 
meddle  with  the  Dutch,  or  to  depend  too  much  on  the 
Virginia  company,"  they  trusted  to  their  own  resources  and 
the  aid  of  private  friends.  The  fisheries  had  commended 
American  expeditions  to  English  merchants ;  and  the  agents 
from  Leyden  were  able  to  form  a  partnership  between  their 
employers  and  men  of  business  in  London.  The  services  of 
each  emigrant  were  rated  as  a  capital  of  ten  pounds,  and 
belonged  to  the  company ;  all  profits  were  to  be  reserved 
till  the  end  of  seven  years,  when  the  whole  amount,  and  all 
houses  and  land,  gardens  and  fields,  were  to  be  divided 
among  the  shareholders  according  to  their  respective  in- 
terests. The  London  merchant,  who  risked  one  hundred 
pounds,  would  receive  for  his  money  tenfold  more  than  the 
penniless  laborer  for  his  services.  This  arrangement  threat- 


1C20.  THE  PILGRIMS.  241 

ened  a  seven  years'  check  to  the  pecuniary  prosperity  of  the 
community  ;  yet,  as  it  did  not  interfere  with  civil  rights  or 
religion,  it  did  not  intimidate  the  resolved. 

And  now  the  English  at  Leyden,  trusting  in  God 
and  in  themselves,  made  ready  for  their  departure.       1620. 
The  ships  which  they  had  provided  —  the  "  Speed- 
well," of  sixty  tons,  the  "  Mayflower,"  of  one  hundred  and 
eighty  tons  —  could  hold  but  a  minority  of  the  congrega- 
tion ;    and  Robinson   was  therefore   detained   at  Leyden, 
while  Brewster,  the  governing  elder,  who  was  also  an  able 
teacher,  conducted  "  such  of  the  youngest  and  strongest  as 
freely  offered  themselves."     Every  enterprise  of  the 
pilgrims  began  from  God.     A  solemn  fast  was  held.      July. 
"  Let  us  seek  of  God,"  said  they,  "  a  right  way  for  us, 
and  for  our  little  ones,  and  for  all  our  substance."     Antici- 
pating their  high  destiny,  and  the  sublime  lessons  of  liberty 
that  would  grow  out  of  their  religious  tenets,  Robinson 
gave  them  a  farewell,  breathing  a  freedom  of  opinion  and 
an  independence  of  authority  such  as   then  were  hardly 
known  in  the  world. 

"  I  charge  you,  before  God  and  his  blessed  angels,  that 
you  follow  me  no  further  than  you  have  seen  me  follow  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  Lord  has  more  truth  yet  to  break 
forth  out  of  his  holy  word.  I  cannot  sufficiently  bewail 
the  condition  of  the  reformed  churches,  who  are  come  to  a 
period  in  religion,  and  will  go  at  present  no  further  than 
the  instruments  of  their  reformation.  Luther  and  Calvin 
were  great  and  shining  lights  in  their  times,  yet  they  pene- 
trated not  into  the  whole  counsel  of  God.  I  beseech  you, 
rementber  it,  —  'tis  an  article  of  your  church  covenant,  — 
that  you  be  ready  to  receive  whatever  truth  shall  be  made 
known  to  you  from  the  written  word  of  God." 

"  When  the  ship  was  ready  to  carry  us  away,"  writes 
Edward  Winslow,  "the  brethren  that  stayed  at  Leyden, 
having  again  solemnly  sought  the  Lord  with  us  and  for  us, 
feasted  us  that  were  to  go,  at  our  pastor's  house,  being  large  ; 
where  we  refreshed  ourselves,  after  tears,  with  singing  of 
psalms,  making  joyful  melody  in  our  hearts,  as  well  as  with 
the  voice,  there  being  many  of  the  congregation  very  expert 

VOL.  I.  16 


242  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIU. 

in  music  ;  and  indeed  it  was  the  sweetest  melody  that  ever 
mine  ears  heard.  After  this  they  accompanied  us  to  Delft- 
Haven,  where  we  went  to  embark,  and  then  feasted  us 
again  ;  and,  after  prayer  performed  by  our  pastor,  when  a 
flood  of  tears  was  poured  out,  they  accompanied  us  to  the 
ship,  but  were  not  able  to  speak  one  to  another  for  the 
abundance  of  sorrow  to  part.  But  we  only,  going  aboard, 
gave  them  a  volley  of  small  shot  and  three  pieces  of  ord- 
nance ;  and  so,  lifting  up  our  hands  to  each  other,  and  our 
hearts  for  each  other  to  the  Lord  our  God,  we  departed." 

A  prosperous  wind  soon  wafts  the  vessel  to  South- 
Au|0>5.  ampton  ;  and  in  a  fortnight  the  " Mayflower  "  and  the 

"  Speedwell,"  freighted  with  the  first  colony  of  New 
England,  leave  Southampton  for  America.  But  they  had 
not  gone  far  upon  the  Atlantic  before  the  smaller  vessel 
was  found  to  need  repairs,  and  they  entered  the  port  of 
Dartmouth.  After  the  lapse  of  eight  precious  days,  they 
again  weigh  anchor ;  the  coast  of  England  recedes ;  already 
they  are  unfurling  their  sails  on  the  broad  ocean,  when  the 
captain  of  the  "  Speedwell,"  with  his  company,  dismayed  at 
the  dangers  of  the  enterpi'ise,  once  more  pretends  that  his 
ship  is  too  weak  for  the  service.  They  put  back  to  Ply- 
mouth, "  and  agree  to  dismiss  her,  and  those  who  are  will- 
ing return  to  London,  though  this  was  very  grievous  and 
discouraging."  Having  thus  winnowed  their  numbers,  the 
little  band,  not  of  resolute  men  only,  but  wives,  some  far 
gone  in  pregnancy,  children,  infants,  a  floating  village  of 
one  hundred  and  two  souls,  went  on  board  the  single  ship, 

which  was  hired  only  to  convey  them  across  the 
Sept.  e.  Atlantic ;  and,  on  the  sixth  day  of  September,  1620, 

thirteen  years  after  the  first  colonization  of  Virginia, 
two  months  before  the  concession  of  the  grand  charter  of 
Plymouth,  without  any  warrant  from  the  sovereign  of  Eng- 
land, without  any  useful  charter  from  a  corporate  body,  the 
passengers  in  the  "  Mayflower  "  set  sail  for  a  new  world, 
where  the  past  could  offer  no  favorable  auguries. 

Had  New  England  been  colonized  immediately  on  the 
discovery  of  the  American  continent,  the  old  English  insti- 
tutions would  have  been  planted  with  the  Roman  Catholic 


1620.  THE  PILGRIMS.  243 

hierarchy ;  had  the  settlement  been  made  under  Elizabeth, 
it  would  have  been  before  activity  of  the  popular  mind  in 
religion  had  conducted  to  a  corresponding  activity  of  mind 
in  politics.  The  pilgrims  were  Englishmen,  Protestants, 
exiles  for  conscience,  men  disciplined  by  misfortune,  culti 
vated  by  opportunities  of  extensive  observation,  equal  in 
rank  as  in  rights,  and  bound  by  no  code  but  that  of  religion 
or  the  public  will. 

The  eastern  coast  of  the  United  States  abounds  in  beau- 
tiful and  convenient  harbors,  in  majestic  bays  and  rivers. 
The  first  Virginia  colony,  sailing  along  the  shores  of  North 
Carolina,  was,  by  a  favoring  storm,  driven  into  the  magnifi- 
cent Bay  of  the  Chesapeake  ;  the  pilgrims,  having  selected 
for  their  settlement  the  country  near  the  Hudson,  the  best 
position  on  the  whole  coast,  were  conducted  to  the 
most  barren  part  of  Massachusetts.    After  a  bolster-      leso. 
ous  voyage   of   sixty-three   days,  during  which  one 
person  had  died  and  one  was  born,  they  espied  land ; 
and,  in  two  days  more,  cast  anchor  in  the  harbor  of    NOT.  9 
Cape  Cod. 

Yet,  before  they  landed,  the  manner  in  which  their 
government  should  be  constituted  was  considered ;  and,  as 
some  were  observed  "  not  well  affected  to  unity  and  con- 
cord," they  formed  themselves  into  a  body  politic  by  a 
solemn  voluntary  compact : 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  amen ;  we,  whose  names 
are  underwritten,  the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  NOV.  11. 
sovereign  King  James,  having  undertaken,  for  the 
glory  of  God,  and  advancement  of  the  Christian  faith,  and 
honor  of  our  king  and  country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first 
colony  in  the  northern  parts  of  Virginia,  do,  by  these 
presents,  solemnly  and  mutually,  in  the  presence  of  God  and 
one  of  another,  covenant  and  combine  ourselves  together 
into  a  civil  body  politic,  for  our  better  ordering  and  pres- 
ervation and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid;  and,  by 
virtue  hereof,  to  enact,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  and 
equal  laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  offices,  from 
time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  convenient  for  the 
general  good  of  the  colony.  Unto  which  we  promise  all 
due  submission  and  obedience." 


244  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

This  instrument  "was  signed  by  the  whole  body  of  men, 
forty-one  in  number,  who,  with  their  families,  constituted 
the  one  hundred  and  two,  the  whole  colony,  "  the  proper 
democracy,"  that  arrived  in  New  England.  Here  was  the 
birth  of  popular  constitutional  liberty.  The  middle  age 
had  been  familiar  with  charters  and  constitutions ;  but 
they  had  been  merely  compacts  for  immunities,  partial 
enfranchisements,  patents  of  nobility,  concessions  of  munic- 
ipal privileges,  or  limitations  of  the  sovereign  power  in 
favor  of  feudal  institutions.  In  the  cabin  of  the  "  May- 
flower "  humanity  recovered  its  rights,  and  instituted  gov- 
ernment on  the  basis  of  "  equal  laws  "  enacted  by  all  the 
people  for  "  the  general  good."  John  Carver  was  immedi- 
ately and  unanimously  chosen  governor  for  the  year. 

Men  who  emigrate,  even  in  well-inhabited  districts,  pray 
that  their  journey  may  not  be  in  winter.  Wasted  by  the 
rough  voyage,  scantily  supplied  with  provisions,  the  English 
fugitives  found  themselves,  at  the  opening  of  winter,  on  a 
bleak  and  barren  coast,  in  a  severe  climate,  with  the  ocean 
on  one  side  and  the  wilderness  on  the  other.  There  were 
none  to  show  them  kindness  or  bid  them  welcome.  The 
nearest  French  settlement  was  at  Port  Royal ;  it  was  five 
hundred  miles  to  the  English  plantation  at  Virginia.  As 
they  attempted  to  disembark,  the  water  was  found  so  shal- 
low that  they  were  forced  to  wade  ;  and,  in  the  freezing 
weather,  this  sowed  the  seeds  of  consumption.  The  bitter- 
ness of  mortal  disease  was  their  welcome  to  the  inhospitable 
shore. 

1620.  Winter  was  at  hand,  and  the  spot  for  the  settle- 
Nov.  is.  ment  remame(j  to  1^  ci!0sen>  The  shallop  was 
unshipped  ;  and  it  was  a  real  disaster  to  find  that  it  needed 
repairs.  The  carpenter  made  slow  work,  so  that  sixteen 
or  seventeen  days  elapsed  before  it  was  ready  for  service. 
But  Standish  and  Bradford  and  others,  impatient  of  the 
delay,  determined  to  explore  the  country  by  land.  "  In 
regard  to  the  danger,"  the  expedition  "was  rather  per- 
mitted than  approved."  Much  hardship  was  endured; 
but  what  beneficial  discoveries  could  be  made  in  the  deep 
sands  near  Paomet  Creek?  The  first  expedition  in  the 


1620.  THE  PILGRIMS.  245 

shallop  was  likewise  unsuccessful ;  "  some  of  the  people, 
that  died  that  winter,  took  the  original  of  their  death  "  in 
the  enterprise;  "for  it  snowed  and  did  blow  all  the  day 
and  night,  and  froze  withal."  The  men  who  were  set  on 
shore  "  were  tired  with  marching  up  and  down  the  steep 
hills  and  deep  valleys,  which  lay  half  a  foot  thick  with 
snow."  A  heap  of  maize  was  discovered ;  and  further 
search  led  to  a  burial-place  of  the  Indians  ;  but  they  found 
"  no  more  corn,  nor  any  thing  else  but  graves." 

At  length,  the  shallop  was  again  sent  out,  with  1620. 
Carver,  Bradford,  Winslow,  Standish,  and  others,  Dec-6- 
and  eight  or  ten  seamen.  The  spray  of  the  sea  froze  as 
it  fell  on  them,  and  made  their  clothes  like  coats  of  iron. 
That  day,  they  reached  Billingsgate  Point,  at  the  bottom 
of  the  Bay  of  Cape  Cod,  on  the  western  shore  of 
Wellfleet  harbor.  The  next  morning,  the  company  Dec.  7. 
divided;  those  on  shore  find  a  burial-place,  graves, 
and  four  or  five  deserted  wigwams,  but  neither  people,  nor 
any  place  inviting  a  settlement.  Before  night,  the  whole 
party  met  by  the  seaside,  and  encamped  on  land  together 
near  Namskeket,  or  Great  Meadow  Creek. 

The  next  day,  they  rose  at  five ;  their  morning  prayers 
were  finished,  when,  as  the  day  dawned,  a  war-whoop 
and  a  flight  of  arrows  announced  an  attack  from  Dec.  8. 
Indians.  They  were  of  the  tribe  of  the  Nausites, 
who  knew  the  English  as  kidnappers ;  but  the  encounter 
was  without  further  result.-  Again  the  boat's  crew  give 
thanks  to  God,  and  steer  their  bark  along  the  coast  for  the 
distance  of  fifteen  leagues.  But  no  convenient  harbor  is 
discovered.  The  pilot,  who  had  been  in  these  regions 
before,  gives  assurance  of  a  good  one,  which  may  be  reached 
before  night;  and*  they  follow  his  guidance.  After  some 
hours'  sailing,  a  storm  of  snow  and  rain  begins;  the  sea 
swells ;  the  rudder  breaks ;  the  boat  must  now  be  steered 
with  oars  ;  the  storm  increases  ;  night  is  at  hand  ;  to  reach 
the  harbor  before  dark,  as  much  sail  as  possible  is  borne ; 
the  mast  breaks  into  three  pieces ;  the  sail  falls  overboard ; 
but  the  tide  is  favorable.  The  pilot,  in  dismay,  would  have 
run  the  boat  on  shore  in  a  cove  full  of  breakers.  "  About 


246  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

with  her,"  exclaimed  a  sailor,  "  or  we  are  cast  away."     They 
get  her   about   immediately;   and,  passing  over  the   surf, 
they  enter  a  fair  sound,  and  shelter  themselves  under  the 
lee  of  a  small  rise  of  land.     It  is  dark,  and  the  rain  beats 
furiously ;  yet  the  men  are  so  wet,  and  cold,  and  weak, 
they  slight  the  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  the  savages, 
and,  after  great  difficulty,  kindle  a  fire  on  shore. 
1620.         The  light  of   morning  showed  the  place  to  be  a 
Dec.  9.    gma]i  island  within  the  entrance  of  a  harbor.     The 
day  was  required  for  rest  and  preparations.     Time  was  pre- 
cious ;  the  season  advancing ;  their  companions  were 
'    *  left  in  suspense.     The  next  day  was  the  "  Christian 
sabbath ; "  and  the  pilgrims  kept  it  sacredly,  though  every 
consideration  demanded  haste. 

On  Monday,  the  eleventh  of  December,  old  style, 
on  the  very  day  of  the  winter  solstice,  the  exploring 
party  of  the  forefathers  land  at  Plymouth.  A  grateful 
posterity  has  marked  the  rock  near  which  they  landed. 
That  day  is  kept  as  the  origin  of  New  England,  the  plant- 
ing of  its  institutions.  Historians  love  to  trace  every  vest- 
ige of  the  pilgrims  ;  poets  commemorate  their  virtues ;  the 
noblest  genius  has  been  called  into  exercise  to  display  their 
merits  worthily,  and  to  trace  the  consequences  of  their 
enterprise. 

The  spot,  when  examined,  invited  a  settlement ; 
'  and,  in  a  few  days,  the  "Mayflower"  was  safely 
moored  in  its  harbor.  In  memory  of  the  hospitalities  which 
the  company  had  received  at  the  last  English  port  from 
which  they  had  sailed,  this  oldest  New  England  colony  took 
the  name  of  Plymouth.  The  system  of  civil  government 
had  been  established  by  common  agreement ;  the  church 
had  been  fully  organized  before  it  left  Leyden.  As  the 
pilgrims  landed,  their  institutions  were  already  perfected. 
"A  commonwealth  was  in  the  bud."  Democratic  liberty 
and  independent  Christian  worship  started  into  being. 

After  some  days,  they  began  to  build ;  a  difficult 

Jan!'9.    *ask  fc>r  men  of  whom  one  half  were  wasting  away 

with  consumptions  and  lung-fevers.     For  the  sake  of 

haste,  it  was  agreed  that  every  man  should  build  his  own 


1621.  THE  PILGRIMS. 

house ;  but,  though  the  winter  was  unwontedly  mild,  frost 
and  foul  weather  were  great  hindrances  :  they  could  seldom, 
work  half  of  the  week ;  and  tenements  were  erected  as  they 
could  be,  in  the  intervals  between  showers  of  sleet  and  snow. 

A  few  years  before,  a  pestilence  had  swept  away 
the  neighboring  tribes.     Yet  when  a  body  of  Indians  F^i'e. 
from  abroad  was  discovered  hovering  near,  though 
disappearing  when  pursued,  the  colony  assumed  a  military 
organization,  with    Miles    Standish   as   its    captain.      But 
dangers  from  the  natives  were  not  at  hand. 

One  day  in  March,  Samoset,  an  Indian  who  had  Mar.  IB. 
learned  a  little  English  of  the  fishermen  at  Penob- 
scot,  entered  the  town,  and,  passing  to  the  rendezvous,  ex- 
claimed in  English  :  "  Welcome,  Englishmen."  He  was 
from  the  eastern  coast,  of  which  he  gave  them  profitable 
information ;  he  told  also  the  names,  number,  and  strength 
of  the  nearer  people,  especially  of  the  Wamponoags,  a  tribe 
memorable  in  the  history  of  New  England.  After  some 
little  negotiation,  in  which  an  Indian,  who  had  been  carried 
away  by  Hunt,  and  had  learned  English  in  England,  acted 
as  an  interpreter,  Massassoit  himself,  "the  greatest  com- 
mander of  the  country,"  sachem  of  the  tribe  possessing  the 
country  north  of  Narragansett  Bay,  and  between 
the  rivers  of  Providence  and  Taunton,  came  to  visit  Mar.  32. 
the  pilgrims,  who,  with  their  wives  and  children, 
amounted  to  no  more  than  fifty.  The  chieftain  was  re- 
ceived with  all  the  ceremonies  which  the  condition  of  the 
colony  permitted.  A  treaty  of  friendship  was  soon  com- 
pleted in  few  and  unequivocal  terms.  The  parties  promised 
to  abstain  from  mutual  injuries,  and  to  deliver  up  offend"ers ; 
the  colonists  were  to  receive  assistance,  if  attacked  ;  to 
render  it,  if  Massassoit  should  be  attacked  unjustly.  The 
treaty  included  the  confederates  of  the  sachem ;  it  is  the 
oldest  act  of  diplomacy  recorded  in  New  England ;  it  was 
concluded  in  a  day,  and,  being  founded  on  reciprocal  in- 
terests, was  sacredly  kept  for  more  than  half  a  ceihury. 
Massassoit  desired  the  alliance,  for  the  powerful  Narragan- 
eetts  were  his  enemies ;  his  tribe,  moreover,  having  become 


248  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

habituated  to  some  English  luxuries,  were  willing  to  es- 
tablish a  traffic  ;  while  the  emigrants  obtained  peace,  security, 
and  the  opportunity  of  a  lucrative  commerce. 
1621.  On  the  third  of  March,  a  south  wind  had  brought 
Mar.  3.  warm  an(j  fair  weather.  "  The  birds  sang  in  the 
woods  most  pleasantly."  But  spring  had  far  advanced, 
before  the  mortality  grew  less.  It  was  afterwards  remarked, 
with  modest  gratitude,  that,  of  the  survivors,  very  many 
lived  to  an  extreme  old  age.  A  shelter,  not  less  than 
comfort,  had  been  wanting ;  the  living  had  been  scarce  able 
to  bury  the  dead ;  the  well  too  few  to  take  care  of  the  sick. 
At  the  season  of  greatest  distress,  there  were  but  seven  able 
to  render  assistance.  Carver,  the  governor,  at  his  first  land- 
ing, lost  a  son  ;  by  his  care  for  the  common  good,  he  short- 
ened his  own  days  ;  and  his  wife,  broken-hearted,  followed 
him  in  death.  Brewster  was  the  life  and  stay  of  the  planta- 
tion ;  but  he  being  its  ruling  elder,  William  Bradford,  the 
historian  of  the  colony,  was  chosen  Carver's  successor.  The 
record  of  misery  was  kept  by  the  graves  of  the  governor 
and  half  the  company. 

After  sickness  abated,  privation  and  want  remained  to  be 
encountered.     Yet,  when  in  April  the  "  Mayflower  "  was 

despatched  for  England,  not  one  returned  in  her; 
July,  while  near  autumn  new  emigrants  arrived.  In  July, 

an  embassy  from  the  little  colony  to  Massassoit,  their 
ally,  performed  through  the  forests  and  on  foot,  confirmed 
the  treaty  of  amity,  and  prepared  the  way  for  a  trade  in 
furs.  The  marks  of  devastation  from  a  former  plague  were 
visible  wherever  the  envoys  went,  and  they  witnessed  the 
extreme  poverty  and  feebleness  of  the  natives. 

The  influence  of  the  English  over  the  aborigines  was 

rapidly  extended.      A  sachem,  who  menaced  their 

safety,  was  compelled  to  sue  for  mercy ;  and  in 
Sept.  is.  September  nine  chieftains  subscribed  an  instrument 

of  submission  to  King  James.  The  Bay  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  harbor  of  Boston  were  explored.  The  supply 
of  bread  was  scanty ;  but,  at  their  rejoicing  together  after 
the  harvest,  the  colonists  had  great  plenty  of  wild  fowl  and 
venison,  so  that  they  feasted  Massassoit  with  some  ninety  of 
his  men. 


1622.  THE  PILGRDIS.  249 

Canonicus,  the  wavering  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts, 
whose  territory  had  escaped  the  ravages  of  the  pesti- 
lence, hod  at  first  desired  to  treat  of  peace ;   in  1G22,       1622. 
a  bundle  of  arrows,  wrapped  in  the  skin  of  a  rattle- 
snake, was  his  message  of  hostility.     But,  when  Bradford 
sent  back  the  skin  stuffed  with  powder  and  shot,  his  courage 
quailed,  and  he  sued  for  amity. 

The  returns  from  agriculture  continued  to  be  uncertain 
so  long  as  the  system  of  common  property  prevailed. 
After  the  harvest  of  1623,  there  was  no  general  want       iei'3 
of  food ;   in  the  spring  of  that   year,  it   had   been 
agreed  that  each  family  should  plant  for  itself  ;  and  parcels 
of  land,   in   proportion  to   the   respective   numbers,  were 
assigned    for  tillage,   though   not  for   inheritance.      This 
arrangement  produced   contented  labor  and   universal  in- 
dustry ;  "  even  women  and  children  now  went  into 
the  field  to  work."     The  next  spring,  every  person       1024. 
obtained  a  little  land  in  perpetual  fee,  and  neat -cattle 
were  introduced.     The  necessity  of  the  case  and  the  common 
interest  demanded  a  slight  departure  from  the  oppressive 
agreement  with  the  English  merchants.     Before  many  har- 
vests, so  much  corn  was  raised  that  it  began  to  form  one 
profitable  article  of  commerce  ;  and  the  Indians,  preferring 
the  chase  to  tillage,  looked  to  the  men  of  Plymouth  for 
their  supply.     The  exchange  of  European  manufactures  for 
beaver  and  other  skins  was  lucrative. 

The  gain  by  the  fur-trade  was  an  object  of  envy  ;  and     1623. 
Thomas  Weston,  who  had  been  active  among  the  Lon-   March- 
don  adventurers  in  establishing  the  Plymouth  colony,  now  de- 
sired to  engross  the  profits  which  he  already  deemed  secure. 
A  patent  for  land  near  Weymouth,  the  first  plantation 
in  Boston  harbor,  was  easily  obtained ;  and  a  company       1622. 
of  sixty  men  were  sent  over.     Helpless  at  their  ar- 
rival, they  intruded  themselves,  for  most  of  the  summer, 
upon  the  unrequited  hospitality  of  the  people  of  Plymouth. 
In  their  plantation,  they  were  soon  reduced  to  necessity  by 
their  want  of  thrift  and  injustice  towards  the  Indians  ;  and 
a  plot  was  formed  for  their  entire  destruction.   But  the  grate- 
ful Massassoit  revealed  the  design  to  his  allies ;  and  the  plant- 


250  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIII. 

ers  at  "Weymouth  were  saved  by  the  wisdom  of  the  older  col- 
ony and  the  intrepid  gallantry  of  Stan  dish.     It  was 
1623.       "  his  capital  exploit."   Some  of  the  rescued  men  went 
to  Plymouth  ;  some  sailed  for  England.     One  short 
year  saw  the  beginning  and  decay  of  Weston's  adventure. 

The  partnership  of  the  Plymouth  men  with  English  mer- 
chants occasioned  double  inconvenience ;  for  it  not  only  en- 
dangered their  prosperity,  but  kept  from  them  their  pastor. 
Robinson  and  the  rest  of  his  church,  at  Leyden,  were  suffer- 
ing from  deferred  hopes,  and  were  longing  to  rejoin  their 
brethren.  The  adventurers  in  England  refused  to  provide 
them  a  passage,  and  attempted,  with  but  short  success, 
1ic26t°  to  f°rce  upon  the  colonists  a  clergyman  more  friendly 
to  the  established  church.  Offended  by  opposition, 
and  discouraged  at  the  small  returns  from  their  investments, 
they  became  ready  to  prey  upon  the  interests  of  their  asso- 
ciates in  America.  A  ship  was  despatched  to  rival  them  in 
their  business  ;  goods,  which  were  sent  for  their  supply,  were 
sold  to  them  at  an  advance  of  seventy  per  cent.  The  curse 
of  usury,  which  always  falls  so  heavily  upon  new  settlements, 
did  not  spare  them ;  for,  being  left  without  help  from  the 
partners,  they  were  obliged  to  borrow  money  at  fifty  per 
cent  and  at  thirty  per  cent  interest.  At  last,  the  emigrants 
purchased  the  entire  rights  of  the  English  adventurers ;  the 
common  property  was  equitably  divided,  and  agriculture 
established  on  the  basis  of  private  possession.  For  a  six 
years'  monopoly  of  the  trade,  eight  of  the  most  enterprising 
men  assumed  all  the  engagements  of  the  colony ;  so  that  the 
cultivators  of  the  soil  became  really  freeholders ;  neither 
debts  nor  rent  day  troubled  them. 

The  progress  of  population  was  very  slow.  The  lands  in 
the  vicinity  were  not  fertile  ;  and  at  the  end  of  ten  years 
the  colony  contained  no  more  than  three  hundred  souls. 
Hardly  were  they  planted  in  America,  when  their  enterprise 
began  to  take  a  wide  range  ;  before  Massachusetts  was 
settled,  they  had  acquired  rights  at  Cape  Ann,  as  well  as  an 
extensive  domain  on  the  Kennebec;  and  they  were  the 
1G25.  first  of  the  English  to  have  a  post  on  the  banks  of 
Mar-1-  the  Connecticut.  The  excellent  Robinson  died  at 


1630.  THE  PILGRIMS.  251 

Leyden,  before  the  faction  in  England  would  permit  his 
removal  to  Plymouth  ;  his  heart  was  in  America,  where 
his  memory  will  never  die.  The  remainder  of  his  people, 
and  with  them  his  wife  and  children,  emigrated,  so  soon  as 
means  could  be  provided  to  defray  the  costs. 

The  frame  of  civil  government  in  the  old  colony  was  of 
the  utmost  simplicity.     A  governor  was  chosen  by  general 
suffrage,  whose   power,  always  subordinate   to  the 
common  mil,  was,  at  the  desire  of  Bradford,  in  1624      1624. 
restricted  by  a  council  of  five,  and  in  1633  of  seven,       less, 
assistants.     In  the  council,  the  governor  had  but  a 
double  vote.     There  could  be  no  law  or  imposition  without 
consent  of  freemen.     For  more  than  eighteen  years,  "the 
whole  body  of  the  male  inhabitants  "  constituted  the  legis- 
lature ;  the  state  was  governed,  like  our  towns,  as  a  strict 
democracy;   and  the  people  were  frequently  convened  to 
decide  on  executive  not  less  than  on  judicial  ques- 
tions.   At  length,  in  1639,  the  increase  of  population,       1639. 
and  its  diffusion  over  a  wider  territory,  led  to  the 
introduction  of  the  representative  system,  and  each 
town  sent  its  committee  to  the  general  court.     We  shall 
find  the  colony  a  distinct  member  of  the  earliest  American 
confederacy. 

The  men  of  Plymouth  exercised  self-government  IGSO. 
without  the  sanction  of  a  royal  charter,  which  it 
was  ever  impossible  for  them  to  obtain  ;  so  that,  according 
to  the  principles  adopted  in  England,  the  planters,  with  an 
unquestionable  property  in  the  soil,  had  no  right  to  assume 
a  separate  jurisdiction.  It  was  therefore  in  the  colonists 
themselves  that  their  institutions  found  a  guarantee  for  sta- 
bility. They  never  hesitated  to  punish  small  offences ;  it 
was  only  after  some  scruples  that  they  inflicted  capital  pun- 
ishment. Their  doubts  being  once  removed,  they  exercised 
the  same  authority  as  the  charter  governments.  Death  was, 
by  subsequent  laws,  made  the  penalty  for  several  crimes, 
but  was  never  inflicted  except  for  murder.  House-breaking 
and  highway  robbery  were  offences  unknown  in  their  courts, 
and  too  little  apprehended  to  be  made  subjects  of  severe 
legislation. 


252  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  VIIL 

"  To  enjoy  religious  liberty  was  the  known  end  of  the 
first  comers'  great  adventure  into  this  remote  wilderness  ;^" 
and  they  desired  no  increase  but  from  the  friends  of  their 
communion.  Yet  their  residence  in  Holland  had  made  them 
acquainted  with  various  forms  of  Christianity ;  a  wide  ex- 
perience had  emancipated  them  from  bigotry ;  and  they  were 
nevef  betrayed  into  the  excesses  of  religious  persecution, 

though  they  sometimes  permitted  a  disproportion 
1645.  between  punishment  and  crime.  In  1645,  a  majority 

of  the  house  of  delegates  were  in  favor  of  an  act  to 
"  allow  and  maintain  full  and  free  toleration  to  all  men  that 
would  preserve  the  civil  peace  and  submit  unto  government ; 
and  there  was  no  limitation  or  exception  against  Turk,  Jew, 
Papist,  Arian,  Socinian,  Nieolaitan,  Familist,  or  any  other;" 
but  the  governor,  fearing  it  would  "  eat  out  the  power  of 
godliness,"  refused  to  put  the  question,  and  so  stifled  the 
law. 

It  is  chiefly  as  guides  and  pioneers  that  the  fathers  of 
the  old  colony  merit  gratitude.  Through  scenes  of  gloom 
and  misery,  they  showed  the  way  to  an  asylum  for  those 
who  would  go  to  the  wilderness  for  the  liberty  of  conscience. 
Accustomed  "  in  their  native  land  to  a  plain  country  life 
and  the  innocent  trade  of  husbandry,"  they  set  the  example 
of  colonizing  New  England  with  freeholders,  and  formed 
the  mould  for  the  civil  and  religious  character  of  its  institu- 
tions. Enduring  every  hardship  themselves,  they  were  the 
servants  of  posterity,  the  benefactors  of  succeeding  genera- 
tions. In  the  history  of  the  world,  many  pages  are  devoted 
to  commemorate  the  men  who  have  besieged  cities,  subdued 
provinces,  or  overthrown  empires.  In  the  eye  of  reason 
and  of  truth,  a  colony  is  a  better  offering  than  a  victory  ;  it 
is  more  fit  to  cherish  the  memory  of  those  who  founded  a 
state  on  the  basis  of  democratic  liberty ;  the  men  who,  as 
they  first  trod  the  soil  of  the  New  World,  scattered  the 
seminal  principles  of  republican  freedom  and  national  inde- 
pendence. They  enjoyed,  in  anticipation,  their  extending 
influence,  and  the  fame  which  their  successors  would  award 
to  their  virtues.  "  Out  of  small  beginnings,"  said  Bradford, 
"  great  things  have  been  produced  ;  and  as  one  small  candle 


1645.  THE  PILGRIMS.  253 

may  light  a  thousand,  so  the  light  here  kindled  hath  shone 
to  many,  yea,  in  some  sort  to  our  whole  nation."  "  Let  it 
not  be  grievous  to  you,"  such  was  the  consolation  offered 
from  England  to  the  pilgrims  in  the  season  of  their  greatest 
sufferings,  "let  it  not  be  grievous  to  you,  that  you  have 
been  instruments  to  break  the  ice  for  others.  The  honor 
shall  be  yours  to  the  world's  end."  "  Yea,  the  memory  of 
the  adventurers  to  this  plantation  shall  never  die." 


254  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   EXTENDED    COLONIZATION   OF   NEW   ENGLAND. 

THE   council  of   Plymouth    for  New  England,  having 

ob.tained  of  King  James  the  boundless  territory  and 
1620.  the  immense  monopoly  which  they  had  desired,  had 

no  further  obstacles  to  encounter  but  the  laws  of  nat- 
ure and  the  remonstrances  of  parliament.  No  tributaries 
tenanted  their  countless  millions  of  uncultivated  acres ;  and 
exactions  upon  the  vessels  of  English  fishermen  were  the 
only  means  of  acquiring  an  immediate  revenue  from  Amer- 
ica. But,  in  April,  1621,  the  spirit  of  the  commons  indig- 
nantly opposed  the  extravagant  pretensions  of  the  favored 
company,  and  demanded  for  every  subject  of  the  English 
king  the  free  liberty  of  engaging  in  a  pursuit  which  was  the 

chief  source  of  wealth  to  the  merchants  of  the  west. 
ApTk  " Sha11  the  English,"  said  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  the 

statesman  so  well  entitled  to  the  enduring  grati- 
tude of  America,  "  be  debarred  from  the  freedom  of  the 
fisheries,  a  privilege  which  the  French  and  Dutch  enjoy? 
It  costs  the  kingdom  nothing  but  labor,  employs  shipping, 
and  furnishes  the  means  of  a  lucrative  commerce  with 
Spain."  "  The  fishermen  hinder  the  plantations,"  replied 
Calvert ;  "  they  choke  the  harbors  with  their  ballast,  and 
waste  the  forests  by  improvident  use.  America  is  not 
annexed  to  the  realm,  nor  within  the  jurisdiction  of  par- 
liament. You  have,  therefore,  no  right  to  interfere."  "  We 
may  make  laws  for  Virginia,"  rejoined  another  member, 
intent  on  opposing  the  flagrant  benevolence  of  the  king,  and 
wholly  unconscious  of  asserting,  in  the  earliest  debate  on 
American  affairs,  the  claim  of  parliament  to  that  absolute 
sovereignty  which  the  colonies  never  acknowledged,  and 
which  led  to  the  war  of  the  revolution ;  "  a  bill  passed  by 


1623.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    255 

the  commons  and  the  lords,  if  it  receive  the  king's  assent, 
will  control  the  patent."  The  charter,  argued  Sir  Edward 
Coke,  with  ample  reference  to  early  statutes,  was  granted 
without  regard  to  previously  existing  rights,  and  is  there- 
fore void  by  the  established  laws  of  England.  So  the 
friends  of  the  liberty  of  fishing  triumphed  over  the  advo- 
cates of  the  royal  prerogative,  though  the  parliament  was 
dissolved  before  a  bill  could  be  carried  through  all  the 
forms  of  legislation. 

Yet  enough  had  been  done  to  infuse  vigor  into 
mercantile  enterprise.  In  the  second  year  after  the  1622. 
settlement  of  Plymouth,  five-and-thirty  sail  of  vessels 
went  to  fish  on  the  coasts  of  New  England,  and  made  good 
voyages.  The  monopolists  appealed  to  King  James ;  and 
the  monarch  issued  a  proclamation,  which  forbade  any  to 
approach  the  northern  coast  of  America,  except  with  the 
leave  of  the  company  of  Plymouth,  or  of  the  privy  council. 
It  was  monstrous  thus  to  seal  up  a  large  portion  of  an 
immense  continent ;  it  was  impossible  to  carry  the  ordi- 
nance into  effect.  The  desire  to  enforce  it  provoked  a  con- 
flict, in  which  it  was  sure  of  being  overthrown. 

But  the  monopolists  endeavored  to  establish  their 
claims.     In  June,  1623,  one  Francis  West  was  de-     jjj^ 
spatched  with  a  commission  as  admiral  of  New  Eng- 
land, for  the  purpose  of  excluding  from  the  American  seas 
such  fishermen  as  came  without  a  license.   But  his  feeble  au- 
thority was  derided  ;  the  ocean  was  a  wide  place  over  which 
to  keep  sentry.    The  mariners  refused  to  pay  the  tax  which 
he  imposed  ;  and  his  ineffectual  authority  was  soon  resigned. 

The  patentees,  alike  prodigal  of  charters  and  tena- 
cious of  their  monopoly,  having,  in  December,  1622,  Decfl'3. 
given  to  Robert  Gorges,  the  son  of  Sir  Ferdinando, 
a  patent  for  a  tract  extending  ten  miles  on  Massachusetts 
Bay,  and  thirty  miles  into  the  interior,  appointed  him  lieu- 
tenant-general of  New  England,  with  power  "to  restrain 
interlopers,"  not  less  than  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  the  cor- 
poration.    His  patent  was  never  permanently  used ; 
though,  in  1623,  the  colony  at  Weymouth  was  re-      1623. 
vived,  to  meet  once  more  with  ill  fortune.    He  was 


256  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

attended  by  Morell,  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  who  was  pro- 
vided with  a  commission  for  the  superintendence  of  ecclesi- 
astical affairs.  It  was  no  doubt  with  the  same  party  that 
the  clergyman  William  Blackstone  came  over.  Instead  of 
establishing  a  hierarchy,  Morell,  remaining  in  New  England 
about  a  year,  wrote  a  description  of  the  country  in  very 
good  Latin  verse ;  while  the  civil  dignity  of  Robert  Gorges 
ended  in  a  short-lived  dispute  with  Weston. 

When,  in  1624,  parliament  was  again  convened, 
the  controversy  against  the  charter  was  renewed ; 
and  the  rights  of  liberty  found  a  champion  in  the  aged  Sir 
Edward  Coke,  who  now  expiated  the  sins  of  his  early  ambi- 
tion by  devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  people.  It 
Mar.  17.  was  in  vain  that  the  patentees  relinquished  a  part  of 
their  pretensions  ;  the  commons  resolved  that  Eng- 
lish fishermen  should  have  fishing  with  all  its  incidents. 
"  Your  patent,"  thus  Gorges  was  addressed  by  Coke  from 
the  speaker's  chair,  "  contains  many  particulars  contrary  to 
the  laws  and  privileges  of  the  subject ;  it  is  a  monopoly, 
and  the  ends  of  private  gain  are  concealed  under  color  of 
planting  a  colony."  "  Shall  none,"  observed  the  veteran 
lawyer  in  debate,  "  shall  none  visit  the  sea-coast  for  fishing? 
This  is  to  make  a  monopoly  upon  the  seas,  which  wont  to 
be  free.  If  you  alone  are  to  pack  and  dry  fish,  you  attempt 
a  monopoly  of  the  wind  and  the  sun."  It  was  in  vain  for 
Sir  George  Calvert  to  resist.  The  bill  for  free  fishing  was 
adopted,  but  it  never  received  the  royal  assent. 

The  determined  opposition  of  the  house,  though  it  could 
not  move  the  king  to  overthrow  the  corporation,  paralyzed 
its  enterprise  ;  many  of  the  patentees  abandoned  their  inter- 
est :  so  that  the  Plymouth  company  now  did  little  except 
issue  grants  of  domains  ;  and  the  cottages,  which,  within  a 
few  years,  were  sprinkled  along  the  coast  from  Cape  Cod 
to  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  were  the  consequence  of  private  ad- 
venture. 

The  territory  between  the  river  of  Salem  and  the  Ken- 

nebec  became,  in  a  great  measure,  the  property  of  two 

enterprising  individuals.    We  have  seen  that  Martin 

1603.       Pring  was  the  discoverer  of  New  Hampshire,  and 


1629.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    257 

that  John  Smith,  of  Virginia,  had   examined   and       1614. 
extolled  the  deep  waters  of   the   Piscataqua.     Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  the  most  energetic  member  of       1020. 
the  council  of  Plymouth,  always  ready  to  encounter 
risks  in  the  cause  of  colonizing  America,  had  not  allowed 
repeated  ill-success  to   chill  his  confidence  and  decision; 
and   he  found  in  John  Mason,  "who  had  been  governor 
of  a  plantation  in  Newfoundland,  a  man  of  action,"  like 
himself.   It  was  not  difficult  for  Mason,  who  had  been  elected 
an  associate  and  secretary  of  the  council,  to  obtain, 
in  March,  1621,  a  grant  of  the  lands  between  Salem   j^"9 
River  and  the  farthest  head  of  the  Merrimack ;  but 
he  did  no  more  with  this  vast  estate  than  give  it  a  name.   The 
passion  for  land  increased ;  and  Gorges  and  Mason 
next,  in  August,  1622,  took  a  patent  for  Laconia,  the 
whole  country  between  the  sea,  the   St.  Lawrence, 
the  Merrimack,  and  the  Kennebec ;  a  company  of  English 
merchants  was  formed ;  and  under  its  auspices,  in 
1623,  permanent  plantations  were  established  on  the       1623. 
banks  of  the  Piscataqua.     Portsmouth  and  Dover  are 
among  the  oldest  towns  in  New  England.   In  the  same  year, 
an  attempt  was  made  by  Christopher  Lovett  to  colonize  the 
county  and  city  of  York,  for  which,  at  a  later  day,  collec- 
tions were  ordered  to  be  taken  up  in  all  the  churches  of 
England.    Meantime,  the  council  for  New  England,  holding 
a  meeting  at  Whitehall  in  June,  1623,  divided  it  among 
themselves  by  the  drawing  of  lots,  the  king  himself  drawing 
for  Buckingham. 

When  the  country  on  Massachusetts  Bay  was  granted 
to  a  company,  of  which  the  zeal  and  success  were  soon 
to  overshadow  all  the  efforts  of  proprietaries  and  mer- 
chants, it  became  expedient  for  Mason  to  procure  a 
new  patent ;  and,  in  November,  1629,  he  received  a  ^ovf V. 
fresh  title  to  the  territory  between  the  Merrimack 
and  Piscataqua,  in  terms  which,  in  some  degree,  interfered 
with  the  pretensions  of  his  neighbors  on  the  south.  This 
was  the  patent  for  New  Hampshire,  and  was  pregnant  with 
nothing  so  signally  as  suits  at  law.  The  region  had  been 
devastated  by  the  mutual  wars  of  the  tribes,  and  the  same 

VOL.  I.  17 


258  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

wasting  pestilence  which  left  New  Plymcmth  a  desert ;  no 

notice   seems  to  have   been   taken   of   the   rights   of  the 

natives,  nor  did  they  now  issue  any  deed  of  their 

1630.  lands ;  but  the   soil  in   the   immediate  vicinity  of 
Dover,  and  afterwards  of  Portsmouth,  was  conveyed 

1631.  to  the  planters  themselves,  or  to  those  at  whose  ex- 
pense the  settlement  had  been  made.     A  favorable 

impulse  was  thus  given  to  the  little  colonies ;  and  houses 
now  began  to  be  built  on  the  "  Strawberry  Bank  "  of  the 
Piscataqua.    But  the  progress  of  the  town  was  slow ;  Jos- 
selyn  described  the  whole  coast  as  a  mere  wilderness, 
less.      with  here  and  there  a  few  huts  scattered  by  the  sea- 
1653.       side ;  and,  thirty  years  after   its   settlement,  Ports- 
mouth made  only  the  moderate  boast  of  containing 
"  between  fifty  and  sixty  families." 

When  the  grand 'charter,  which  had  established 
less.  the  council  of  Plymouth,  was  about  to  be  revoked, 
Mason  extended  his  pretensions  to  the  Salem  River, 
the  southern  boundary  of  his  first  territory,  and  ob- 
Aprii22.  tained  of  the  expiring  corporation  a  corresponding 
Nov.  26.  patent.  But  the  death  of  Mason,  before  the  king 
had  confirmed  his  grant,  cut  off  the  aggrandizement 
of  his  family.  His  widow  in  vain  attempted  to  manage 
the  colonial  domains ;  the  costs  exceeded  the  revenue ; 
the  servants  were  ordered  to  provide  for  their  own  wel- 
fare ;  the  property  of  the  great  landed  proprietary  was 
divided  among  them  for  the  payment  of  arrears ;  and 
Mason's  American  estate  was  completely  ruined.  Neither 
king  nor  feudal  lord  troubled  the  few  inhabitants  of 
New  Hampshire ;  they  were  left  to  take  care  of  them- 
selves. 

The  enterprise  of  Sir   Ferdinando   Gorges,  though   sus- 
tained by  stronger   expressions   of  royal  favor,  and   con- 
tinued with  indefatigable  perseverance,  was  not   followed 
by  much  greater  success.     We  have  seen  a  colony 
1606.       established,  though  but  for  a  single  winter,  on  the 
shores  which  Pring  had  discovered  and  Waymouth 
1615.      had  explored.    After  the  bays  of  New  England  had 
been  more  carefully  examined  by  the  same  daring 


1626.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    259 

adventurer   who    sketched    the    first    map    of   the    Chesa- 
peake, the   coast  was   regularly  visited   by  fishermen   and 
traders.     A  special  account  of  the  country  was  one  of  the 
fruits  of  Hakluyt's  inquiries,  and  was  published  in  the  col 
lections  of  Purchas.    At  Winter  Harbor,  near  the  mouth 
of  Saco  River,  Englishmen,  under  Richard  Vines, 
again   encountered  the  severities  of  the   inclement 
season ;    and,   not  long    afterwards,  the    mutineers 
of  the  crew  of  Rocraft  lived  from  autumn  till  spring 
on  Monhegan  Island.      The  earliest   settlers,  intent 
only   on    their    immediate    objects,   hardly   aspired    after 
glory ;   from  the  few  memorials  which  they  have  left,  it  is 
not,  perhaps,  possible  to  ascertain  the  precise   time  when 
the  rude  shelters  of  the  fishermen  on  the  sea-coast 
began  to  be  tenanted  by  permanent  inmates,  and  the    1^8*° 
fishing  stages  of  a  summer  to  be  transformed  into 
regular  establishments  of  trade.    The  first  settlement 
was  probably  made  "  on  the  Maine,"  but  a  few  miles       1626. 
from  Monhegan,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Pemaquid.    The 
earliest  observers  could  not  but  admire  the  noble  rivers  and 
secure  bays,  which  invited  commerce,  and  gave  the  prom- 
ise of  future  opulence ;  but  if  hamlets  were  soon  planted 
near  the  mouths  of  the  streams,  if  forts  were  erected  to 
protect  the  merchant  and  the  mariner,  agriculture  received 
no  encouragement ;  and  so  many  causes  combined  to  check 
the  growth  of  the  country,  that,  notwithstanding  its  natural 
advantages,  nearly  two  centuries  glided  away,  before  the 
scattered  settlements  along  the    seaside   rose   into   a  suc- 
cession  of   busy  marts,   sustained    and    enriched    by  the 
thriving  villages  of  a  fertile  interior. 

The  settlement  at  Piscataqiia  could  not  quiet  the  ambi- 
tion of  Gorges.  As  a  churchman  and  an  Englishman,  he 
was  almost  a  bigot,  both  in  patriotism  and  in  religion. 
Unwilling  to  behold  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  the 
French  monarch  obtain  possession  of  the  eastern  coast  of 
North  America,  his  first  act  with  reference  to  the  territory 
of  the  present  state  of  Maine  was  to  invite  the  Scottish 
nation  to  become  the  guardians  of  its  frontier.  Sir  "Wil- 
liam Alexander,  the  ambitious  writer  of  turgid  rhyming 


260  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

tragedies,  a  man  of  influence  with  King  James,  and  already 
filled  with  the  desire  of  engaging  in   colonial   adventure, 
seconded  a  design  which  promised  to  establish  his  personal 
dignity  and  interest ;  and  he  obtained,  without  diffi- 
Sept^io  culty>  a  patent  for  all  the  territory  east  of  the  river 
St.   Croix   and   south   of  the    St.   Lawrence.      The 
region,  which  had  already  been  included  in  the  provinces 
of  Acadia  and  New  France,  was  designated  in   English 
geography  by  the  name  of  Nova  Scotia.     Thus  were  the 
seeds  of  future  wars  scattered  broadcast  by  the  unreason- 
able pretensions  of  England;   for  James  now  gave 
1603.       away  lands  which  already,  and  with  a  better  title 
on  the  ground  of  discovery,  had  been  granted  by 
Henry  IV.  of  France,  and  immediately  occupied  by  his 
subjects. 

Attempts  were  made  without  delay  to  effect   a 

1622.  Scottish  settlement.     In  1622,  a  ship,  despatched  for 
the  purpose,  came  in  sight  of  the  shore,  and  then,  de- 
clining the  perilous  glory  of  colonization,  returned  to  the 

permanent  fishing  station  on   Newfoundland.      The 

1623.  next  spring,  a  second  ship  arrived ;  but  the  two  ves- 
sels in  company  hardly  possessed  courage  to  sail  to 

and  fro  along  the  coast,  and  make  a  partial  survey  of  the 
harbors  and  the  adjacent  lands.  The  formation  of  a  colony 
was  postponed ;  and  a  brilliant  eulogy  of  the  soil,  climate, 
and  productions  of  Nova  Scotia  was  the  only  compensation 
for  the  failure. 

It  may  be  left  to  English  historians  to  relate  how  much 
their  country  suffered  from  the  childish  ambition  of  King 
James  to  marry  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  the  daughter  of 
the  king  of  Spain.  In  the  rash  and  unsuccessful  visit  of 
Prince  Charles  and  Buckingham  to  Madrid,  the  former 
learned  only  to  cherish  the  fine  arts  more  fondly,  and  to 
become  riveted  in  his  belief  that  the  king  of  England  was 
rightfully  as  absolute  as  the  monarchs  of  France  and  Spain ; 
the  latter  received  accounts  of  abundance  of  gold  in  the 
country  of  the  Amazon,  and,  after  his  return,  obtained  a 
grant  of  the  territory  on  that  majestic  river,  with  the  promise 
of  aid  in  his  imperial  enterprise  from  the  king  of  Sweden. 


1629.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    261 

After  the  death  of  James,  the  marriage  of  Charles  1625< 
I.  with  Henrietta  Maria  promised  between  the  rival  May- 
claimants  of  the  wilds  of  Acadia  such  friendly  relations  as 
would  lead  to  a  peaceful  adjustment  of  jarring  pretensions. 
Yet,  even  at  that  period,  the  claims  of  France  were 
not  recognised  by  England;  and  in  July,  1625,  a  July  12. 
new  patent  confirmed  to  Sir  William  Alexander  all 
the  prerogatives  which  had  been  lavished  on  him,  with  the 
right  of  creating  an  order  of  baronets.  The  sale  of  titles 
proved  to  the  poet  a  lucrative  traffic;  the  project  of  a  col- 
ony was  abandoned. 

The  self-willed,  feeble  monarch  of  England,  having  twice 
abruptly  dissolved  parliament,  and  having  vainly  resorted 
to  illegal  modes  of  taxation,  had  forfeited  the  confidence  of 
his  people,  and,  while  engaged  in  a  war  with  Spain,  was 
destitute  of  money  and  of  credit.  It  was  at  such  a 
moment  that  the  favorite  Buckingham,  eager  to  iczr. 
thwart  Richelieu,  hurried  England  into  an  unneces- 
sary and  disastrous  conflict  with  France.  The  siege  of 
Rochelle  invited  the  presence  of  an  English  fleet ;  but  the 
expedition  was  fatal  to  the  honor  and  the  objects  of  Buck- 
ingham. 

Hostilities  were   nowhere  successfully  attempted, 
except  in  America.     In  1628,  Port  Royal  fell  easily      1628. 
into  the  hands  of  the  English ;  the  conquest  was  no 
more  than  the  acquisition  of   a  small  trading  station.     It 
was  a  bolder  design  to  attempt  the  reduction  of  Canada. 
Sir  David  Kirk  and  his  two  brothers,  Louis  and  Thomas, 
were  commissioned  to  ascend  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  Quebec 
received  a  summons  to  surrender.     The  garrison,  destitute 
alike  of  provisions  and  of  military  stores,  had  no  hope  but 
in  the  character  of  Champlain,  its  commander :  his  answer 
of  proud  defiance  concealed  his  weakness ;  and  the 
intimidated  assailants  withdrew.     But  Richelieu  sent       1029. 
no  seasonable  supplies ;  the  garrison  was  reduced  to 
extreme  suffering  and  the  verge  of  famine ;  and,  when  the 
squadron  of  Kirk  reappeared  before  the  town,  the  English 
were  welcomed  as  deliverers.     Favorable   terms  were   de- 
manded and  promised  ;  and  Quebec  capitulated.    That  is  to 


262  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  IX. 

say,  England  gained  possession  of  a  few  wretched  hovels, 
tenanted  by  a  hundred  miserable  men,  beggars  for  bread  of 
their  vanquishers ;  and  a  fortress  of  which  the  English 
admiral  could  not  but  admire  the  position.  Not  a  port  in 
North  America  remained  to  the  French ;  from  Long  Island 
to  the  pole,  England  had  no  rival. 

But,  before  the  conquest  of  Canada  was  achieved, 

^iy.      peace  had  been  proclaimed  between  the  contending 

states ;  and  as  an  article  in  the  treaty  promised  the 

restitution  of  all  acquisitions,   made   subsequent   to 

Mar229.  April  145  1629,  Richelieu  recovered  not  Quebec  and 

Canada  only,  but   Cape   Breton  and  the   undefined 

Acadia. 

Very  different  causes  delayed  the  colonization  of  Maine. 
Hardly  had  the  settlement,  which  claimed  the  dis- 
1628.  tinction  of  being  the  oldest  plantation  on  that  coast, 
gained  a  permanent  existence,  before  a  succession  of 
patents  distributed  the  territory  from  the  Piscataqua  to  the 
Penobscot  among  various  proprietors.  The  grants 
were  couched  in  vague  language,  and  were  made  in 
hasty  succession,  without  deliberation  on  the  part  of 
the  council  of  Plymouth,  and  without  any  firm  purpose  of 
establishing  colonies  on  the  part  of  those  for  whose  benefit 
they  were  issued.  The  consequences  were  obvious.  As  the 
neighborhood  of  the  indefinite  possessions  of  France  fore- 
boded the  border  feuds  of  a  controverted  jurisdiction,  so 
the  domestic  disputes  about  land-titles  and  boundaries 
threatened  perpetual  lawsuits.  At  the  same  time,  enter- 
prise was  wasted  by  its  diffusion  over  too  wide  a  surface. 
Every  harbor  along  the  sea  was  accessible ;  groups  of  cabins 
were  scattered  at  wide  intervals,  without  any  common  point 
of  attraction ;  and  the  agents  of  such  proprietaries  as  aimed 
at  securing  a  revenue  from  colonial  rents  were  often,  per- 
haps, faithless,  were  always  unsuccessful.  How  feeble  were 
the  attempts  at  planting  towns  is  evident  from  the  nature 
of  the  tenure  by  which  the  lands  near  the  Saco  were  held ; 
the  condition  of  the  grant  was  the  introduction  of  fifty  set- 
tlers within  seven  years !  Agriculture  was  hardly  attempted. 
A  district  of  forty  miles  square,  named  Lygonia,  and 


1636.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     263 

stretching  from  Harpswell  to  the  Kennebunk,  was  icso. 
set  apart  for  the  first  colony  of  farmers ;  but,  when  a 
vessel  of  sixty  tons  brought  over  the  emigrants  who  were 
to  introduce  the  plough  into  the  regions  on  Casco  Bay,  the 
earlier  resident  adventurers  treated  their  scheme  with  deri- 
sion. The  musket  and  the  hook  and  line  were  more  pro- 
ductive than  the  implements  of  husbandry ;  the  few  mem- 
bers of  the  unsuccessful  company  remained  but  a  single 
year  in  a  neighborhood  where  the  culture  of  the  soil  was  so 
little  esteemed,  and,  embarking  once  more,  sought  a  home 
among  the  rising  settlements  of  Massachusetts.  Except  for 
the  wealth  to  be  derived  from  the  forest  and  the  sea,  the 
coast  of  Maine  would  not  at  that  time  have  been  tenanted 
by  Englishmen ;  and  this  again  was  fatal  to  the  expectations 
of  the  proprietaries,  since  furs  might  be  gathered  and  fish 
taken  without  the  payment  of  quit-rents  or  the  purchase  of 
lands. 

Yet,  from  pride  of  character,  Gorges  clung  to  the 
pi'oject  of  territorial  aggrandizement.  When  Mason  pe^\ 
limited  himself  to  the  country  west  of  the  Piscata- 
qua,  and  while  Sir  William  Alexander  obtained  of  the  Ply- 
mouth company  a  patent  for  the  country  between  the  St. 
Croix  and  the  Kennebec,  Gorges,  alike  undismayed  by  pre- 
vious losses,  and  by  the  encroaching  claims  of  the  French, 
who  had  already  advanced  their  actual  boundary  to  the  Pe- 
nobscot,  succeeded  in  soliciting  the  district  that  remained  be- 
tween the  Kennebec  and  the  boundary  of  New  Hampshire. 
The  earnestness  of  his  designs  is  apparent  from  his  appoint- 
ment as  governor-general  of  New  England.  An  accident 
having  prevented  his  embarkation  for  America,  he  sent  a 
nephew,  William  Gorges,  to  govern  the  territory.  That 
officer  repaired  to  the  province  without  delay.  Saco  may 
have  contained  one  hundred  and  fifty  inhabitants, 
when,  in  1636,  the  first  court  ever  duly  organized  on  1636. 
the  soil  of  Maine  was  held  within  its  limits.  Before 
that  tune,  there  may  have  been  voluntary  combinations 
among  the  settlei's  themselves ;  but  there  had  existed  on  the 
Kennebec  no  jurisdiction  of  sufficient  power  to  prevent  or 
to  punish  bloodshed  among  the  traders.  William  Gorges 


264  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

1637.      remained  in  the  country  less  than  two  years.     Six 
Puritans  of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  who  re- 
ceived a  commission  to  act  as  his  successors,  declined  the 
trust,  and  for  two  years  no  records  of   the  infant  settle- 
ments then  called  New  Somersetshire  can  be  found. 
April's.  *n  April,  1639,  a  royal  charter  constituted  Gorges,  in 
his  old  age,  the  lord  proprietary  of  the  country ;  for 
which  the  old  soldier,  who  had  never  seen  America,  imme- 
diately  aspired   to   establish   boroughs,  frame  schemes   of 
colonial  government,  and  enact  a  code  of  laws. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  settlements  at  the  north  at 
a  time  when  the  region  which  lies  but  a  little  nearer  the  sun 
was  already  converted,  by  the  energy  of  religious  zeal,  into 
a  busy,  well-organized,  and  even  opulent  state.  The  early 
history  of  Massachusetts  is  the  history  of  a  class  of  men 
as  remarkable  for  their  qualities  and  influence  as  any  by 
which  the  human  race  has  been  diversified. 

The  settlement  near  Weymouth  was  kept  up ;  a 
1625'  plantation  was  begun  near  Mount  Wollaston,  within 
the  present  limits  of  Quincy ;  and  the  merchants  of 
the  west  continued  their  voyages  to  New  England  for 
fish  and  furs.  But  these  things  were  of  feeble  moment, 
compared  with  the  attempt  at  a  permanent  establishment 
near  Cape  Ann;  by  which  Arthur  Lake,  bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells,  and  John  White,  the  patriarch  minister  of 
Dorchester,  Puritans,  but  not  separatists,  "  occasioned,  yea, 
founded  the  work"  of  colonization,  breathing  into  the  en- 
terprise a  higher  principle  than  the  desire  of  gain.  "He 
would  go  himself,  but  for  his  age,"  declared  Lake,  shortly 
before  his  death.  Roger  Conant,  having  already  left  New 
Plymouth  for  Nantasket,  through  a  brother  in  Eng- 
1625.  land,  who  was  a  friend  of  White,  in  1625  obtained 
the  agency  of  the  adventure.  A  year's  experi- 
ence proved  to  the  company  that  their  speculation  must 
change  its  form,  or  it  would  produce  no  results ;  the  mer- 
chants, therefore,  paid  with  honest  liberality  all  the  persons 
whom  they  had  employed,  and  abandoned  the  unprofitable 
scheme.  But  Conant,  a  man  of  extraordinary  vigor,  "  in- 
spired as  it  were  by  some  superior  instinct,"  and  confid- 


1628.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     265 

ing  in  the  active  friendship  of  White,  succeeded  in  1626. 
breathing  a  portion  of  his  sublime  courage  into  three 
of  his  companions ;  and,  making  choice  of  Salem,  as  open- 
ing a  convenient  place  of  refuge  for  the  exiles  for  religion, 
they  resolved  to  remain  as  the  sentinels  of  Puritanism  on 
the  Bay  of  Massachusetts.  • 

In  the  year  1627,  some  friends  being  together  in       1627. 
Lincolnshire  fell  into  discourse  about  New  England, 
and  the  planting  of  the  gospel  there ;  and,  after  some  de- 
liberation, they  imparted  their  reasons  by  letters  and  mes- 
sages to  some  in  London  and  the  west  country. 

"  The  business  came  afresh  to  agitation "  in  London ; 
the  project  of  planting  by  the  help  of  fishing  voyages  was 
given  up ;  and  from  that  city,  Lincolnshire,  and  the  west 
country,  men  of  fortune  and  religious  zeal,  merchants  and 
country  gentlemen,  the  discreeter  sort  among  the  many 
who  desired  a  reformation  in  church  government,  "  offered 
the  help  of  their  purses  "  to  advance  "  the  glory  of  God," 
by  planting  a  colony  of  the  best  of  their  countrymen  on 
the  shores  of  New  England.  To  facilitate  the  grant  of 
a  charter  from  the  crown,  they  sought  the  concurrence  of 
the  council  of  Plymouth  for  New  England;  they  were 
befriended  in  their  application  by  the  Earl  of  Warwick, 
and  obtained  the  approbation  of  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges ;  and  on  the  nineteenth  of  March,  1628,  Marfio 
that  company,  which  had  proved  itself  incapable  of 
colonizing  its  domain,  and  could  derive  revenue  only  from 
sales  of  territory,  disregarding  a  former  grant  of  a  large  dis- 
trict on  the  Charles  River,  conveyed  to  Sir  Henry  Ro  swell, 
Sir  John  Young,  Thomas  Southcoat,  John  Humphrey,  John 
Endecott,  and  Simon  Whetcomb,  a  belt  of  land  extending 
three  miles  south  of  the  river  Charles  and  the  Massachusetts 
Bay,  and  three  miles  north  of  every  part  of  the  river  Merri- 
mack,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  to  be  held 
by  the  same  tenure  as  in  the  county  of  Kent.  The  grantees 
associated  to  themselves  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  Isaac  John- 
son, Matthew  Cradock,  Increase  Nowell,  Richard  Bell- 
ingham,  Theophilus  Eaton,  William  Pynchon,  and  others ; 
of  whom  nearly  all  united  religious  zeal  with  a  capacity 


2(56  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

for  vigorous  action.  Endecott  —  who,  "ever  since  the 
Lord  in  mercy  had  revealed  himself  unto  him,"  had  main- 
tained the  straitest  judgment  against  the  outward  form  of 
God's  worship  as  prescribed  by  English  statutes ;  a  man  of 
dauntless  courage,  and  that  cheerfulness  which  accompanies 
courage  ;  benevolent,  though  austere ;  firm,  though  choleric  ; 
of  a  rugged  nature,  which  his  stern  principles  of  non-con- 
formity had  not  served  to  mellow  —  was  selected  as  a  "fit 
instrument  to  begin  this  wilderness  work."  Before 
june828.  June  carac  to  an  end,  he  was  sent  over  as  governor, 
assisted  by  a  few  men,  having  his  wife  and  family  for 
the  companions  of  his  voyage,  the  hostages  of  his  irrevo- 
cable attachment  to  the  New  World.  Arriving  in 
Sept.  is.  safety  in  September,  he  united  his  own  party  and 
those  who  were  formerly  planted  there  into  one 
body,  which  counted  in  all  not  much  above  fifty  or  sixty 
persons.  "With  these,  he  founded  the  oldest  town  in  the 
colony,  soon  to  be  called  Salem ;  and  extended  some  super- 
vision over  the  waters  of  Boston  harbor,  then  called  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay,  near  which  the  lands  were  "  counted  the 
paradise  of  New  England."  At  Charlestown,  an  English- 
man, one  Thomas  Walford,  a  blacksmith,  dwelt  in  a 
thatched  and  palisaded  cabin.  William  Blackstone,  an 
Episcopal  clergyman,  a  courteous  recluse,  gifted  with  the 
impatience  of  restraint  which  belongs  to  the  pioneer,  had 
planted  himself  on  the  opposite  peninsula ;  the  island  now 
known  as  East  Boston  was  occupied  by  Samuel  Maverick, 
sou  of  a  pious  non-conformist  minister  of  the  west  of  Eng- 
land, himself  a  prelatist.  At  Nantasket  and  further  south, 
stragglers  lingered  near  the  seaside,  attracted  by  the  gains 
of  a  fishing  station  and  a  petty  trade  in  beaver.  The  Puri- 
tan ruler  visited  the  remains  of  Morton's  unruly  company 
in  what  is  now  Quincy,  rebuked  them  for  their  profane 
revels,  and  admonished  them  "  to  look  there  should  be 
better  walking." 

After  the  departure  of  the  emigrant  ship  from  England, 
the  company,  counselled  by  White,  an  eminent  lawyer,  and 
supported  by  Lord  Dorchester,  better  known  as  Sir  Dudley 
Carleton,  who,  in  December,  became  secretary  of  state, 


1629.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     267 

obtained  from  the  king  a  confirmation  of  their  grant.  It 
was  the  only  way  to  secure  the  country  as  a  part  of  his 
dominions ;  for  the  Dutch  were  already  trading  in  the 
Connecticut  River ;  the  French  claimed  New  England,  as 
within  the  limits  of  New  France  ;  and  the  prelatical  party, 
which  had  endeavored  again  and  again  to  colonize  the 
coast,  had  tried  only  to  fail.  Before  the  news  reached  Lon- 
don of  Endecott's  arrival,  the  number  of  adventurers 
was  much  enlarged ;  on  the  second  of  March,  1629,  1629. 
an  offer  of  "  Boston  men,"  that  promised  good  to  the 
plantation,  was  accepted ;  and  on  the  fourth  of  the  same 
month,  a  few  days  only  before  Charles  I.,  in  a  public  state 
paper,  avowed  his  purpose  of  reigning  without  a  parlia- 
ment, the  broad  seal  of  England  was  put  to  the  letters 
patent  for  Massachusetts. 

The  charter,  which  was  cherished  for  more  than  half 
a  century  as  the  most  precious  boon,  constituted  a  body 
politic  by  the  name  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England.  The  adminis- 
tration of  its  affairs  was  intrusted  to  a  governor,  deputy, 
and  eighteen  assistants,  who  were  annually,  on  the  last 
Wednesday  of  Easter  term,  to  be  elected  by  the  freemen 
or  members  of  the  corporation,  and  to  meet  once  a  month 
or  oftener  "for  despatching  such  businesses  as  concerned 
the  company  or  plantation."  Four  times  a  year,  the  gov- 
ernor, assistants,  and  all  the  freemen  were  to  be  summoned 
to  "  one  great,  general,  and  solemn  assembly ; "  and  these 
"  great  and  general  courts  "  were  invested  with  full  powers 
to  choose  and  admit  into  the  company  so  many  as  they 
should  think  fit,  to  elect  and  constitute  all  requisite  sub- 
ordinate officers,  and  to  make  laws  and  ordinances  for  the 
welfare  of  the  company  and  for  the  government  of  the 
lands  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  plantation,  "  so  as  such 
laws  and  ordinances  be  not  contrary  and  repugnant  to  the 
laws  and  statutes  of  the  realm  of  England." 

"  The  principle  and  foundation  of  the  charter  of  Massa- 
chusetts," wrote  Charles  II.,  at  a  time  when  he  had 
Clarendon  for  his  adviser,  "  was  the  freedom  of  liberty 
of  conscience."  The  governor,  or  his  deputy,  or  two  of 


268  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

the  assistants,  was  empowered,  but  not  required,  to  ad- 
minister the  oaths  of  supremacy  and  allegiance  to  every 
person  who  should  go  to  inhabit  the  granted  lands  ;  and 
as  the  statutes,  establishing  the  common  prayer  and  spirit- 
ual courts,  did  not  reach  beyond  the  realm,  the  silence  of 
the  charter  respecting  them  released  the  colony  from  their 
binding  power.  The  English  government  did  not  foresee 
how  wide  a  departure  from  English  usages  would  grow  out 
of  the  emigration  of  Puritans  to  America ;  but,  as  con- 
formity was  not  required  of  the  new  commonwealth,  the 
character  of  the  times  was  a  guarantee  that  the  immense 
majority  of  emigrants  would  be  fugitives  who  scrupled 
compliance  with  the  common  prayer.  The  prelatical  party 
had  no  motive  to  emigrate  :  it  was  Puritanism,  almost 
1629.  alone,  that  would  pass  over ;  and  freedom  of  Puritan 
worship  was  necessarily  the  purpose  and  the  result 
of  the  colony.  The  proceedings  of  the  company,  moreover, 
did  not  fall  under  the  immediate  supervision  of  the  king, 
and  did  not  require  his  assent  to  render  them  valid  ;  so  that 
self-direction,  in  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  civil  affairs,  passed 
to  the  patentees,  subject  only  to  conflicts  with  the  undefined 
prerogative  of  the  king,  and  the  rising  claim  to  paramount 
legislative  authority  by  parliament. 

The  company  was  authorized  to  transport  to  its  Ameri- 
can territory  any  persons,  whether  English  or  foreigners, 
who  would  go  willingly,  would  become  lieges  of  the  Eng- 
lish king,  and  were  not  restrained  "  by  especial  name ; " 
and  they  were  encouraged  to  do  so  by  a  promise  of  favor 
to  the  commerce  of  the  colony  with  foreign  parts,  and  a 
total  or  partial  exemption  from  duties  for  seven  and  for 
twenty-one  years.  If  the  pretension  to  a  right  of  imposing 
duties  after  that  limited  time  was  not  renounced,  it  was  at 
least  declared  that  the  emigrants  and  their  posterity  should 
ever  be  considered  as  natural  born  subjects,  entitled  to  all 
English  liberties  and  immunities. 

The  political  rights  of  the  colonists  were  deemed  by 
King  Charles  no  further  worthy  of  his  consideration  ;  the 
corporate  body  alone  was  to  decide  what  liberties  they 
should  enjoy.  All  ordinances  published  under  its  seal 


1629.   EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     269 

were  to  be  implicitly  obeyed.  Full  legislative  and  execu- 
tive authority  was  conferred  not  on  the  future  inhabitants 
of  New  England,  but  on  the  company,  of  which  the  emi- 
grants could  not  be  active  members  so  long  as  its  meetings 
were  held  in  England.  Yet,  as  if  by  design,  the  place  for 
holding  its  courts  was  not  specially  appointed.  What  if 
the  corporation  should  admit  the  emigrants  to  be  freemen, 
and  call  a  meeting  beyond  the  Atlantic  ?  What  if  the  gov- 
ernor, deputy,  assistants,  and  freemen  should  transfer 
themselves  and  their  patent  to  Massachusetts,  and,  1629. 
after  thus  breaking  down  the  distinction  between 
the  colony  and  the  corporation,  by  a  daring  construction  of 
their  powers  under  the  charter  erect  an  independent  rep- 
resentative government  ? 

The  charter  had  been  granted  in  March ;  in  April,  the 
new  embarkation  was  far  advanced.  The  local  government 
temporarily  established  for  Massachusetts  was  to  consist  of 
a  governor  and  councillors,  of  whom  eight  out  of  thirteen 
were  appointed  by  the  corporation  in  England ;  three  were 
to  be  named  by  these  eight ;  and,  to  complete  the  number, 
the  old  planters  who  intended  to  remain  were  "  to  choose 
two  of  the  discreetest  men  among  themselves." 

As  the  propagating  the  gospel  was,  by  the  free  profession 
of  the  company,  their  aim  in  settling  the  plantation,  they 
were  careful  to  make  plentiful  provision  of  godly  ministers ; 
all  "  of  one  judgment,  and  fully  agreed  on  the  manner  how 
to  exercise  their  ministry."  One  of  them  was  Samuel  Skel- 
ton,  of  Clare  Hall,  Cambridge,  from  whose  faithful  preach- 
ings Endecott  had  formerly  received  much  good ;  a  friend 
to  the  utmost  equality  of  privileges  in  church  and  state : 
another  was  the  able,  reverend,  and  grave  Francis  Higgin- 
son,  of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge,  commended  for  his  worth 
by  Isaac  Johnson,  the  friend  of  Hampden.  Deprived  of 
his  parish  in  Leicester  for  non-conformity,  he  received  the 
invitation  to  conduct  the  emigrants  as  a  call  from  Heaven. 

Two  other  ministers  were  added,  that  there  might  be 
enough,  not  only  to  build  up  those  of  the  English  nation, 
but  also  to  "wynne  the  natives  to  the  Christian  faith."  "  If 
any  of  the  salvages,"  such  were  the  instructions  to  Endecott, 


270  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

uniformly  followed  under  the  succeeding  changes  of  govern- 
ment, "  pretend  right  of  inheritance  to  all  or  any  part  of 
the  lands  granted  in  our  patent,  endeavor  to  purchase  their 
tytle,  that  we  may  avoid  the  least  scruple  of  intrusion." 
"  Particularly  publish  that  no  wrong  or  injury  be  offered  to 
the  natives."  In  pious  sincerity,  the  company  desired  to 
redeem  these  wrecks  of  human  nature  ;  the  colony  seal  was 
an  Indian  erect,  with  an  arrow  in  his  right  hand,  and  the 
motto,  "  Come  over  and  help  us,"  —  a  device  of  which  the 
appropriateness  has  been  lost  by  the  modern  substitution  of 
the  line  of  Algernon  Sydney. 

The  passengers  for  Salem  included  six  shipwrights,  and 
an  experienced  surveyor,  who  was  to  give  advice  on  the 
proper  site  for  a  fortified  town,  and  with  Samuel  Sharpe, 
master-gunner  of  ordnance,  was  to  muster  all  such  as  lived 
under  the  government,  both  planters  and  servants,  and  at 
appointed  times  to  exercise  them  in  the  use  of  arms.  A 
great  store  of  cattle,  horses,  and  goats  was  put  on  ship- 
board. Before  sailing,  servants  of  ill  life  were  discharged. 
"  No  idle  drone  may  live  amongst  us,"  was  the  spirit  as  well 
as  the  law  of  the  dauntless  community.  As  Higginson  and 
his  companions  were  receding  from  the  Land's  End,  he 
called  his  children  and  others  around  him  to  look  for  the 
last  time  on  their  native  country,  not  as  the  scene  of  suffer- 
ings from  intolerance,  but  as  the  home  of  their  fathers,  and 
the  dwelling-place  of  their  friends.  They  did  not  say, 
"  Farewell,  Babylon !  farewell,  Rome !  "  but  "  Farewell,  dear 
England !  "  During  the  voyage,  they  "  constantly  served 
God,  morning  and  evening,  by  reading  and  expounding  a 
chapter  in  the  Bible,  singing  and  prayer."  On  "  the  sab- 
bath, they  added  preaching  twice,  and  catechising;"  and 
twice  they  "  faithfully  "  kept  "  solemn  fasts."  The  passage 
was  "  pious  and  Christian-like,"  for  even  "  the  ship-master 
and  his  religious  company  set  their  eight  and  twelve  o'clock 
watches  with  singing  a  psalm  and  with  prayer  that  was  not 
read  out  of  a  book." 

In  the  last  days  of  June,  the  band  of  two  hundred 

arrived  at  Salem,  where  conscience  was  no  more  to 

be  wounded  by  the  "corruptions  of  the  English  church." 


1629.   EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     271 

They  found  eight  or  ten  pitiful  hovels,  one  larger  tenement 
for  the  governor,  and  a  few  cornfields,  as  the  only  proofs 
that  they  had  been  preceded  by  their  countrymen.  The  old 
and  new  planters,  without  counting  women  and  children, 
formed  a  body  of  about  three  hundred,  of  whom  the  larger 
part  were  "  godly  Christians,  helped  hither  by  Isaac  John- 
son and  other  members  of  the  company,  to  be  employed  in 
their  work  for  a  while,  and  then  to  live  of  themselves." 

To  anticipate  the  intrusion  of  John  Oldham,  who  was 
minded  to  settle  himself  on  Boston  Bay,  pretending  a  title 
to  much  land  there  by  a  grant  from  Robert  Gorges,  Ende- 
cott  with  all  speed  sent  a  large  party,  accompanied  by  a 
minister,  to  occupy  Charlestown.  On  the  neck  of  land, 
which  was  full  of  stately  timber,  with  the  leave  of  Sagamore 
John,  the  petty  chief  who  claimed  dominion  over  it,  Graves, 
the  surveyor,  employed  some  of  the  servants  of  the  company 
in  building  a  "  great  house,"  and  modelled  and  laid  out  the 
form  of  the  town,  with  streets  about  the  hill. 

To  the  European  world,  the  few  tenants  of  the  huts  and 
cabins  at  Salem  were  too  insignificant  to  merit  notice ;  to 
themselves,  they  were  chosen  emissaries  of  God ;  outcasts 
from  England,  yet  favorites  with  Heaven ;  destitute  of  se- 
curity, of  convenient  food,  and  of  shelter,  and  yet  blessed  as 
instruments  selected  to  light  in  the  wilderness  the  beacon 
of  pure  religion.  The  emigrants  were  not  so  much  a  body 
politic  as  a  church  in  the  wilderness  ;  seeking,  under  a  visi- 
ble covenant,  to  have  fellowship  with  God,  as  a  family  of 
adopted  sons. 

"  The  governor  was  moved  to  set  apart  the  twen-  1629. 
tieth  of  July  to  be  a  solemn  day  of  humiliation,  for  July  20< 
the  choyce  of  a  pastor  and  teacher  at  Salem."  After  prayer 
and  preaching,  "  the  persons  thought  on,"  presenting  no 
claim  founded  on  their  ordination  in  England,  acknowledged 
a  twofold  calling :  the  inward,  which  is  of  God,  who  moves 
the  heart  and  bestows  fit  gifts  ;  the  outward,  which  is  from 
a  company  of  believers  joined  in  covenant,  and  allowing  to 
every  member  a  free  voice  in  the  election  of  its  officers. 
The  vote  was  then  taken  by  each  one's  writing  in  a  note  the 
name  of  his  choice.  Such  is  the  origin  of  the  use  of  the 


272  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

'ballot  on  this  continent ;  in  this  manner,  Skelton  was  chosen 
pastor  and  Higginson  teacher.  Three  or  four  of  the  gravest 
members  of  the  church  then  laid  their  hands  on  Skelton  with 
prayer,  and  in  like  manner  on  Higginson :  so  that  "  these 
two  blessed  servants  of  the  Lord  came  in  at  the  door,  and 
not  at  the  window;"  by  the  act  of  the  congregation,  and 

not  by  the  authority  of  a  prelate.  A  day  in  August 
lug' e  was  appointed  for  the  election  of  ruling  elders  and 

deacons.  Thus  the  church,  like  that  of  Plymouth, 
was  self-constituted,  on  the  principle  of  the  independence  of 
each  religious  community.  It  did  not  ask  the  assent  of 
the  king,  or  recognise  him  as  its  head  ;  its  officers  were  set 
apart  and  ordained  among  themselves ;  it  used  no  liturgy  ; 
it  rejected  unnecessary  ceremonies,  and  reduced  the  sim- 
plicity of  Calvin  to  a  still  plainer  standard.  The  motives 
which  controlled  its  decisions  were  so  deeply  seated,  that 
its  practices  were  repeated  spontaneously  by  Puritan  New 
England. 

There  were  a  few  at  Salem  by  whom  the  new  system  was 
disapproved ;  and  in  John  and  Samuel  Browne  they  found 
able  leaders.  Both  were  members  of  the  colonial  council ; 
both  were  reputed  "  sincere  in  their  affection  for  the  good 
of  the  plantation ; "  they  had  been  specially  recommended 
to  Endecott  by  the  corporation  in  England ;  and  one  of 
them,  an  experienced  lawyer,  had  been  a  member  of  the 
board  of  assistants.  They  refused  to  unite  with  the  public 
assembly,  and  gathered  a  company,  in  which  "  the  common 
prayer  worship "  was  upheld.  But  should  the  emigrants, 
thus  the  colonists  reasoned,  give  up  th'e  purpose  for  which 
they  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  ?  Should  the  success  of  the 
colony  be  endangered  by  a  breach  of  its  unity;  and  the 
authority  of  its  government  overthrown  by  the  confusion  of 
an  ever  recurring  conflict  ?  They  deemed  the  coexistence 
of  their  liberty  and  of  prelacy  impossible  :  anticipating  in- 
vasions of  their  rights,  they  feared  the  adherents  of  the 
establishment,  as  spies  in  the  camp  ;  and  the  form  of  religion 
from  which  they  had  suffered  was  repelled,  not  as  a  sect, 
but  as  a  tyranny.  "  You  are  separatists,"  said  the  Brownes, 
in  self-defence,  "and  you  will  shortly  be  Anabaptists." 


1629.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     273 

"  "We  separate,"  answered  the  ministers,  "  not  from  the 
church  of  England,  but  from  its  corruptions.  "We  came 
away  from  the  common  prayer  and  ceremonies,  in  our 
native  land,  where  we  suffered  much  for  non-conformity; 
in  this  place  of  liberty,  we  cannot,  we  will  not,  use  them. 
Their  imposition  would  be  a  sinful  violation  of  the  worship 
of  God."  The  supporters  of  the  liturgy  were  in  their  turn 
rebuked  as  separatists  ;  their  plea  was  reproved  as  sedition, 
their  worship  forbidden  as  a  mutiny ;  and  the  Brownes  were 
sent  back  to  England,  as  men  "factious  and  evil  condi- 
tioned," who  could  not  be  suffered  to  remain  within  the  lim- 
its of  the  grant,  because  they  would  not  be  conformable  to 
its  government.  Thus  was  Episcopacy  professed  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  thus  was  it  exiled. 

The  Brownes,  on  their  arrival  in  England,  raised  rumors 
of  scandalous  and  intemperate  speeches  uttered  by  the 
ministers  in  their  public  sermons  and  prayers,  and  of  rash 
innovations  begun  and  practised  in  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
government.  The  returning  ships  also  carried  with  them 
numerous  letters  from  the  emigrants,  which  were  eagerly 
sought  for  and  widely  read.  So  deeply  was  the  English 
people  touched  with  sympathy  for  the  young  colony  that 
within  a  few  months  three  editions  were  published  of  the 
glowing  description  of  New  England  by  Higginson. 

For  the  concession  of  the  Massachusetts  charter  seemed 
to  the  Puritans  like  a  summons  from  Heaven,  inviting  them 
to  America.  There  they  might  profess  the  gospel  in  its 
spotless  simplicity,  and  the  solitudes  of  nature  would  protect 
their  devotions.  England,  by  her  persecutions,  proved 
herself  weary  of  her  inhabitants,  who  were  now  es-  1629. 
teemed  more  vile  than  the  earth  on  which  they  trod. 
Habits  of  expense  degraded  men  of  moderate  fortune  ;  and 
the  schools,  which  should  be  fountains  of  living  waters,  had 
become  corrupt.  The  New  World  shared  in  the  providence 
of  God ;  it  had  claims,  therefore,  to  the  benevolence  and 
exertions  of  man.  What  nobler  work  than  to  abandon  the 
comforts  of  England,  and  plant  a  church  without  a  blemish 
where  it  might  spread  over  a  continent  ? 

But  was  it  right,  a  scrupulous  conscience  demanded,  to 
TOL.  i.  18 


274  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

fly  from  persecutions  ?  Yes,  they  answered,  for  persecutions 
might  lead  their  posterity  to  abjure  the  truth.  The  certain 
misery  of  their  wives  and  children  was  the  most  gloomy 
of  their  forebodings ;  but  a  stern  sense  of  duty  hushed  the 
alarms  of  affection,  and  set  aside  all  consideration  of  physical 
evils  as  the  fears  of  too  carnal  minds.  Respect  for  the  rights 
of  the  natives  offered  an  impediment  more  easily  removed ; 
much  of  their  land  had  been  desolated  by  the  plague,  and 
their  good  leave  might  be  purchased.  The  ill  success  of 
other  plantations  could  not  chill  the  rising  enthusiasm ; 
former  enterprises  had  aimed  at  profit ;  the  present  object 
was  purity  of  religion  ;  the  earlier  settlements  had  been 
filled  with  a  lawless  multitude  ;  it  was  now  proposed  to 
form  a  "  peculiar  government,"  and  to  colonize  "  THE  BEST." 
Such  were  the  "  Conclusions,"  which  were  privately  circu- 
lated among  the  Puritans  of  England. 

At  a  general  court,  held  on  the  twenty-eighth  of 
July,  1629,  Matthew  Cradock,  governor  of  the  com- 
pany, who  had  engaged  himself  beyond  all  expectation  in  the 
business,  following  out  what  seems  to  have  been  the  early 
design,  proposed  "  the  transfer  of  the  government  of  the 
plantation  to  those  that  should  inhabit  there."  At  the  offer 
of  freedom  from  subordination  to  the  company  in  England, 
several  "  persons  of  worth  and  quality,"  wealthy  commoners, 
zealous  Puritans,  were  confirmed  in  the  desire  of  founding  a 
new  and  a  better  commonwealth  beyond  the  Atlantic,  even 
though  it  might  require  the  sale  of  their  hereditary  estates, 
and  hazard  the  inheritance  of  their  children.  To  his  father, 
who  was  the  most  earnest  of  them  all,  the  younger  Winthrop, 
then  about  four-and-twenty,  wrote  cheeringly :  "  I  shall 
call  that  my  country  where  I  may  most  glorify  God,  and 
enjoy  the  presence  of  my  dearest  friends.  Therefore  herein 
I  submit  myself  to  God's  will  and  yours,  and  dedicate  myself 
to  God  and  the  company,  with  the  whole  endeavors,  both 
of  body  and  mind.  The  Conclusions  which  you  sent  down 
are  unanswerable  ;  and  it  cannot  but  be  a  prosperous  action 
which  is  so  well  allowed  by  the  judgments  of  God's  prophets, 
undertaken  by  so  religious  and  wise  worthies  in  Israel,  and 
indented  to  God's  glory  in  so  special  a  service." 


1629.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.      275 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  August,  at  Cambridge,  in  England, 
twelve  men,  of  large  fortunes  and  liberal  culture,  among 
whom  were  John  "Winthrop,  Isaac  Johnson,  Thomas  Dud- 
ley, Richard  Saltonstall,  bearing  in  mind  that  the  adventure 
could  grow  only  upon  confidence  in  each  other's  fidelity  and 
resolution,  bound  themselves  in  the  presence  of  God,  by  the 
word  of  a  Christian,  that  if,  before  the  end  of  September, 
an  order  of  the  court  should  legally  transfer  the  whole 
government,  together  with  the  patent,  they  would  them- 
selves pass  the  seas  to  inhabit  and  continue  in  New  England. 
Two  days  after  this  covenant  had  been  executed,  the  subject 
was  again  brought  before  the  court;  a  serious  and 
long  continued  debate  ensued,  and  on  the  twenty-  1629. 
ninth  of  August  a  general  consent  appeared,  by  the 
erection  of  hands,  that  "  the  government  and  patent  should 
be  settled  in  New  England." 

This  vote,  by  which  the  commercial  corporation  became 
the  germ  of  an  independent  commonwealth,  was  simply  a 
decision  of  the  question  where  the  future  meetings  of  the 
company  should  be  held ;  it  was  sanctioned  by  the  best 
legal  advice ;  its  lawfulness  was  at  the  time  not  questioned 
by  the  privy  council ;  at  a  later  day,  was  expressly  affirmed 
by  Sawyer,  the  attorney-general ;  and,  in  1677,  the  chief- 
justices  Rainsford  and  North  still  described  the  "  charter 
as  making  the  adventurers  a  corporation  upon  the  place." 
Similar  patents  were  granted  by  the  Long  Parliament  and 
Charles  II.,  to  be  executed  in  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut ; 
and  Baltimore  and  Penn  had  an  undisputed  right  to  reside 
on  their  domains.  The  removal  of  the  place  of  holding  the 
courts  from  London  to  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts  changed 
nothing  in  the  relations  of  the  company  to  the  crown,  and 
it  conferred  no  franchise  or  authority  on  emigrants  who 
were  not  members  of  the  company ;  it  would  give  them  a 
present  government,  but  the  corporate  body  and  their 
successors,  wherever  they  were  to  meet,  retained  the  char- 
tered right  of  making  their  own  selection  of  the  persons 
whom  they  would  admit  to  the  freedom  of  the  company. 
The  conditions  on  which  the  privilege  should  be  granted 
would  control  the  political  character  of  Massachusetts. 


276  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

At  a  very  full  general  court,  convened  on  the  twentieth 
of  October  for  the  choice  of  new  officers  out  of  those 
1629.  who  were  to  join  the  plantation,  John  Winthrop,  of 
Groton  in  Suffolk,  of  whom  "  extraordinary  great 
commendations  had  been  received  both  for  his  integrity  and 
sufficiency,  as  being  one  altogether  well  fitted  and  accom- 
plished for  the  place  of  governor,"  was  by  erection  of  hands 
elected  to  that  office  for  one  year  from  that  day ;  and  with  him 
were  joined  a  deputy  and  assistants,  of  whom  nearly  all  pro- 
posed to  go  over.  The  greatness  of  the  undertaking  brought 
a  necessity  for  a  supply  of  money.  It  was  resolved  that  the 
business  should  be  proceeded  in  with  its  first  intention,  which 
was  chiefly  the  glory  of  God ;  and  to  that  purpose  its  meet- 
ings were  sanctified  by  the  prayers  and  guided  by  the  advice 
of  Archer  and  Nye,  two  faithful  ministers  in  London.  Of  the 
old  stock  of  the  company,  two  thirds  had  been  lost ;  the  re- 
mainder, taken  at  its  true  value,  with  fresh  sums  adventured 
by  those  that  pleased,  formed  a  new  stock,  which  was  to  be 
managed  by  ten  undertakers,  five  chosen  out  of  adventurers 
remaining  in  England,  and  five  out  of  the  planters.  The 
undertakers,  receiving  privileges  in  the  fur-trade  and  in 
transportation,  assumed  all  engagements  and  charges,  and 
after  seven  years  were  to  divide  the  stock  and  profits  ;  but 
their  privileges  were  not  asserted,  and  nine  tenths  of  the 
capital  were  sunk  in  the  expenses  of  the  first  year.  There 
was  nothing  to  show  for  the  adventure  but  the  common- 
wealth which  it  helped  to  found.  Of  ships  for  transporting 
passengers,  Cradock  furnished  two.  The  large  ship,  the 
"  Eagle,"  purchased  by  members  of  the  company,  took  the 
name  of  "  Arbella,"  from  a  sister  of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln, 
wife  to  Isaac  Johnson,  who  was  to  go  in  it  to  the  untried 
sorrows  of  the  wilderness.  The  corporation,  which  had  not 
many  more  than  one  hundred  and  ten  members,  could  not 
meet  the  continual  outlays  for  colonization  ;  another  common 
stock  was  therefore  raised  from  such  as  bore  good  affection 
to  the  plantation,  to  defray  public  charges,  such  as  main- 
tenance of  ministers,  transportation  of  poor  families,  building 
of  churches  and  fortifications.  To  the  various  classes  of 
contributors  and  emigrants,  frugal  grants  of  land  promised 


1630.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     277 

some  indemnity.     In  this  manner,  by  the  enterprise  of  the 
ten  undertakers  and  other  members  of  the  company,  espe- 
cially of  those  who  were  ship-owners,  by  the  contributions 
of  Puritans  in  England,  but  mainly  by  the  resources  of  the 
emigrants  themselves,  there  were  employed,  during 
the  season  of  1630,  seventeen  vessels,  which  brought       leso. 
over  not  far  from  a  thousand  souls,  beside  horses, 
kine,  goats,  and  all  that  was  most  necessary  for  planting, 
fishing,  and  ship-building. 

As  the  hour  of  departure  drew  near,  the  hearts  of  some 
even  of  the  strong  began  to  fail.  On  the  eighteenth  of 
March,  it  became  necessary  at  Southampton  to  elect  three 
substitutes  among  the  assistants ;  and,  of  these  three,  one 
never  came  over.  Even  after  they  had  embarked,  a  court 
was  held  on  board  the  "  Arbella,"  and  Thomas  Dudley  was 
chosen  deputy  governor  in  the  place  of  Humphrey,  who 
stayed  behind.  It  was  principally  the  calm  decision  of 
Winthrop  which  sustained  the  courage  of  his  companions. 
In  him  a  yielding  gentleness  of  temper,  and  a  never  failing 
desire  for  unity  and  harmony,  were  secured  against  weak- 
ness by  deep  but  tranquil  enthusiasm.  His  nature  was 
touched  by  the  sweetest  sympathies  of  affection  for  wife, 
children,  and  associates ;  cheerful  in  serving  others  and 
suffering  with  them,  liberal  without  repining,  helpful  with- 
out reproaching,  in  him  God  so  exercised  his  grace  that  he 
discerned  his  own  image  and  resemblance  in  his  fellow-man, 
and  cared  for  his  neighbor  like  himself.  He  was  of  a  soci- 
able nature ;  so  that  "  to  love  and  be  beloved  was  his  soul's 
paradise,"  and  works  of  mercy  were  the  habit  of  his  life. 
Parting  from  affluence  in  England,  he  unrepiningly  went  to 
meet  impoverishment  and  premature  age  for  the  welfare  of 
Massachusetts.  His  lenient  benevolence  tempered  the  big- 
otry of  his  companions,  without  impairing  their  resolute- 
ness. An  honest  royalist,  averse  to  pure  democracy,  yet 
firm  in  his  regard  for  existing  popular  liberties ;  in  his 
native  parish,  a  conformist,  yet  wishing  for  "gospel  pu- 
rity ; "  in  America,  mildly  aristocratic,  advocating  a  govern- 
ment of  "  the  least  part,"  yet  desiring  that  part  to  be  "  the 
wiser  of  the  best ; "  disinterested,  brave,  and  conscientious, 


278  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

—  his  character  marks  the  transition  of  the  reformation  into 
virtual  republicanism.  The  sentiment  of  loyalty,  which  it 
was  still  intended  to  cherish,  gradually  yielded  to  the  unob- 
structed spirit  of  civil  freedom. 

England  rung  from  side  to  side  with  the  "  general 
rumor  of  this  solemn  enterprise."  On  leaving  the  Isle 
of  Wight,  Winthrop  and  the  chief  of  his  fellow  passer,  gers 
on  board  the  "  Arbella,"  including  the  ministers,  bade  an 
affectionate  farewell  "  to  the  rest  of  their  brethren  in  and  of 
the  church  of  England."  "  Reverend  fathers  and  brethren," 
such  was  their  address  to  them,  "  howsoever  yoiir  charitie 
may  have  met  with  discouragement  through  the  misreport 
of  our  intentions,  or  the  indiscretion  of  some  amongst  us, 
yet  we  desire  you  would  be  pleased  to  take  notice  that  the 
principals  and  body  of  our  company  esteem  it  OTir  honour  to 
call  the  church  of  England,  from  whence  wee  rise,  our  deare 
mother,  and  cannot  part  from  our  native  countrie,  where 
she  specially  residcth,  without  much  sadncs  of  heart  and 
many  tears  in  our  eyes  ;  blessing  God  for  the  parentage  and 
education,  as  members  of  the  same  body,  and,  while  we 
have  breath,  we  shall  syncerely  indeavour  the  continuance 
and  abundance  of  her  welfare. 

"  Be  pleased,  therefore,  reverend  fathers  and  brethren,  to 
hclpe  forward  this  worke  now  in  hand  ;  which,  if  it  pros- 
per, you  shall  bee  the  more  glorious.  It  is  a  usuall  exer- 
cise of  your  charity  to  recommend  to  the  prayers  of  your 
congregations  the  straights  of  your  neighbours :  do  the 
like  for  a  church  springing  out  of  your  owne  bowels  ;  pray 
without  ceasing  for  us,  who  are  a  weake  colony  from  your- 
selves. 

"  What  we  intreat  of  you  that  are  ministers  of  God,  that 
we  crave  at  the  hands  of  all  the  rest  of  our  brethren,  that 
they  would  at  no  time  forget  us  in  their  private  solicitations 
at  the  Throne  of  Grace.  If  any,  through  want  of  cleare 
intelligence  of  our  course,  or  tenderness  of  affection  towards 
us,  cannot  conceive  so  well  of  our  way  as  we  could  desire, 
we  would  intreat  such  not  to  desert  us  in  their  prayers,  and 
to  express  their  compassion  towards  us. 

"  What  goodness  you  shall  extend  to  us,  wee,  your  breth- 


1630.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     279 

ren  in  Christ  Jesus,  shall  labour  to  repay;  wishing  our 
heads  and  hearts  may  be  as  fountains  of  tears  for  your  ever- 
lasting welfare,  when  wee  shall  be  in  our  poore  cottages  in 
the  wildernesse,  overshadowed  with  the  spirit  of  supplica- 
tion, through  the  manifold  necessities  and  tribulations  which 
may  not  altogether  unexpectedly,  nor,  we  hope,  unprofita- 
bly  befall  us." 

About  seven  hundred  persons  or  more  —  most  of  them 
Puritans,  inclining  to  the  principles  of  the  Independents ; 
not  conformists,  but  not  separatists  ;  many  of  them  men  of 
high  endowments  and  large  fortune ;  scholars,  well  versed 
in  the  learning  of  the  times ;  clergymen,  who  ranked  among 
the  best  educated  and  most  pious  in  the  realm — embarked 
with  Winthrop  in  eleven  ships,  bearing  with  them  the  char- 
ter which  was  to  be  the  warrant  of  their  liberties.  The 
land  was  to  be  planted  with  a  noble  vine,  wholly  of  the 
right  seed.  The  principal  emigrants  were  a  community  of 
believers,  professing  themselves  to  be  fellow-members  of 
Christ ;  not  a  school  of  philosophers,  proclaiming  universal 
toleration  and  inviting  associates  without  regard  to  creed. 
They  desired  to  be  bound  together  in  a  most  intimate  and 
equal  intercourse,  for  one  and  the  same  great  end.  They 
knew  that  they  would  be  as  a  city  set  upon  a  hill,  and  that 
the  eyes  of  all  people  were  upon  them.  Reverence  for 
their  faith  led  them  to  pass  over  the  vast  seas  to  the  good 
land  of  which  they  had  purchased  the  exclusive  possession, 
with  a  charter  of  which  they  had  acquired  the  entire  con- 
trol, for  the  sake  of  reducing  to  practice  the  system  of  relig- 
ion and  the  forms  of  civil  liberty,  which  they  cherished 
more  than  life  itself.  They  constituted  a  corporation  to 
which  they  themselves  might  establish  the  terms  of  admis- 
sion. They  kept  firmly  in  their  own  hands  the  key  to  their 
asylum,  and  were  resolved  on  closing  its  doors  against  the 
enemies  of  its  unity,  its  safety,  and  its  peace. 

"  The  worke  wee  have  in  hand,"  these  are  Win-       icso. 
throp's  words  on  board  the  "  Arbella  "  during  the 
passage,  "  is  by  amutuall  consent,  through  a  speciall  overrul- 
ing Providence,  and  a  more  than  ordinary  approbation  of  the 
churches  of  Christ,  to  seekc  out  a  place  of  cohabitation  and 


280  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  IX. 

consorteshipp  under  a  due  forme  of  government  both  civill 
and  ecclesiastical.  For  this  wee  are  entered  into  covenant 
with  God ;  for  this  wee  must  be  knitt  together  as  one  man,  all- 
ways  having  before  our  eyes  our  commission  as  members  of 
the  same  body.  Soe  shall  wee  keepe  the  unitie  of  the  spirit 
in  the  bond  of  peace.  The  Lord  will  be  our  God,  and 
delight  to  dwell  among  us,  as  his  owne  people  ;  wee  shall 
see  much  more  of  his  wisdome,  power,  goodness,  and  truthe, 
than  formerly  wee  have  been  acquainted  with;  hee  shall 
make  us  a  prayse  and  glory,  that  men  shall  say  of  succeed- 
ing plantations,  '  The  Lord  make  it  likely  that  of  New 
England.' " 

After  sixty-one  days  at  sea,  the  "  Arbella  "  came  in 
sight  of  Mount  Desert ;  on  the  tenth  of  June,  the 
White  Hills  were  descried  afar  off ;  near  the  Isle  of  Shoals 
and  Cape  Ann,  the  sea  was  enlivened  by  the  shallops  of  fish- 
ermen ;  and  on  the  twelfth,  as  the  ship  came  to  anchor  outside 
of  Salem  harbor,  it  was  visited  by  William  Peirce,  of  the 
"  Lyon,"  whose  frequent  voyages  had  given  him  experience, 
as  a  pilot  on  the  coast.  Winthrop  and  his  companions 
came  full  of  hope  ;  they  found  the  colony  in  an  "  unex- 
pected condition  "  of  distress.  Above  eighty  had  died  the 
winter  before.  Higginson  himself  was  wasting  under  a 
hectic  fever ;  many  others  were  weak  and  sick ;  all  the 
corn  and  bread  among  them  was  hardly  a  fit  supply  for  a 
fortnight.'  The  survivors  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  ser- 
vants, who  had  been  sent  over  in  the  two  years  before  at 
a  great  expense,  instead  of  having  prepared  a  welcome, 
thronged  to  the  new  comers  to  be  fed ;  and  were  set 
free  from  all  engagements,  for  their  labor,  great  as  was 
the  demand  for  it,  was  worth  less  than  their  support. 
Famine  threatened  to  seize  the  emigrants  as  they  stepped 
on  shore ;  and  it  soon  appeared  necessary  for  them,  even 
at  a  ruinous  expense,  to  send  the  "Lyon"  to  Bristol  for 
food. 

To  seek  out  a  place  for  their  plantation,  since  Salem 
pleased  them  not,  Winthrop,  on  the  seventeenth  of  June, 
sailed  into  Boston  harbor.  The  west  country  men,  who, 
before  leaving  England,  had  organized  their  church  with 


1630.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    281 

Maverick  and  Warharn  for  ministers,  and  who  in  a  few 
years  were  to  take  part  in  calling  into  being  the  common- 
wealth of  Connecticut,  were  found  at  Nantasket, 
where  they  had  landed  just  before  the  end  of  May.  isso. 
Winthrop  ascended  the  Mystic  a  few  miles,  and  on 
the  nineteenth  took  back  to  Salem  a  favorable  report  of  the 
land  on  its  banks.  Dudley  and  others,  who  followed,  pre- 
ferred the  country  on  the  Charles  River  at  Watertown.  By 
common  consent,  early  in  the  next  month  the  removal  was 
made,  with  much  cost  and  labor,  from  Salem  to  Charlestown. 
But,  while  drooping  with  toil  and  sorrow,  fevers  consequent 
on  the  long  voyage,  and  the  want  of  proper  food  and 
shelter,  twelve  ships  having  arrived,  the  colonists  kept  the 
eighth  of  July  as  a  day  of  thanksgiving.  The  emigrants 
had  intended  to  dwell  together,  but  in  their  distress  they 
planted  where  each  was  inclined.  A  few  remained  at 
Salem;  others  halted  at  the  Saugus,  and  founded  Lynn. 
The  governor  was  for  the  time  at  Charlestown,  where  the 
poor  "  lay  up  and  down  in  tents  and  booths  round  the  Hill." 
On  the  other  side  of  the  river,  the  little  peninsula,  scarce 
two  miles  long  by  one  broad,  marked  by  three  hills,  and 
blessed  with  sweet  and  pleasant  springs,  safe  pastures,  and 
land  that  promised  "  rich  cornfields  and  fruitful  gardens," 
attracted,  among  others,  William  Coddington  of  Boston  in 
England,  who,  in  friendly  relations  with  William  Black- 
stone,  built  the  first  good  house  there,  even  before  it  took 
the  name  which  was  to  grow  famous  throughout  the  world. 
Some  planted  on  the  Mystic,  in  what  is  now  Maiden. 
Others,  with  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  and  George  Phillips, 
"  a  godly  minister  specially  gifted,  and  very  peaceful  in  his 
place,"  made  their  abode  at  Watertown ;  Pynchon  and  a 
few  began  Roxbury;  Ludlow  and  Rossiter,  two  of  the 
assistants,  with  the  men  from  the  west  of  England,  after 
wavering  in  their  choice,  took  possession  of  Dorchester 
Neck,  now  South  Boston.  The  dispersion  of  the  company 
was  esteemed  a  grievance ;  but  it  was  no  time  for  crimina- 
tion or  debate,  and  those  who  had  health  .made  haste  to 
build.  Winthrop  himself,  "  givinge  good  example  to  all  the 
planters,  wore  plaine  apparell,  drank  ordinarily  water,  and, 


282  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

when  he  was  not  conversant  about  matters  of  justice,  put 
his  hand  to  labour  with  his  servants." 

The  enjoyment  of  the  gospel  as  the  dearest  covenant  that 
can  be  made  between  God  and  man  was  the  chief 
1630.  object  of  the  emigrants.  On  Friday,  the  thirtieth 
of'  July,  a  fast  was  held  at  Charlestown ;  and,  after 
prayers  and  preaching,  Winthrop,  Dudley,  Isaac  Johnson, 
and  Wilson  united  themselves  by  covenant  into  one  "  con- 
gregation," as  a  part  of  the  visible  church  militant.  On  the 
next  Lord's  Day,  others  were  received ;  and  the  members  of 
this  body  could  alone  partake  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  or  pre- 
sent their  children  for  baptism.  They  were  all  brothers  and 
equals ;  they  revered,  each  in  himself,  the  dignity  of  God's 
image,  and  nursed  a  generous  reverence  for  one  another; 
bound  to  a  healing  superintendence  over  each  other's  lives, 
they  exercised  no  discipline  to  remove  evil  out  of  the  inmost 
soul,  except  the  censure  of  the  assembly  of  the  faithful,  whom 
it  would  have  been  held  grievous  to  offend.  This  church,  the 
seminal  centre  of  the  ecclesiastical  system  of  Massachusetts, 
was  gathered  while  Higginson  was  yet  alive ;  on  the  sixth 
of  August,  he  gave  up  the  ghost  with  joy,  for  the  future 
greatness  of  New  England,  and  the  coming  glories  of  its 
many  churches,  floated  in  cheerful  visions  before  his  eyes. 
When,  on  the  twenty-third  of  August,  the  first  court  of  as- 
sistants on  this  side  the  water  was  held  at  Charlestown,  how 
the  ministers  should  be  maintained  took  precedence  of  all 
other  business;  and  it  was  ordered  that  houses  should  be 
built  for  them,  and  support  provided  at  the  common  charge. 
Four  days  later,  the  men  "  of  the  congregation  "  kept  a  fast, 
and,  after  their  OAvn  free  choice  of  John  Wilson  for  their 
pastor,  they  themselves  set  him  apart  to  his  office  by  the 
imposition  of  hands,  yet  without  his  renouncing  his  minis- 
try received  in  England.  In  like  manner,  the  ruling  elder 
and  deacons  were  chosen  and  installed.  Thus  was  consti- 
tuted the  body  which,  crossing  the  Charles  River,  became 
known  as  the  First  Church  of  Boston.  It  imbodied  the 
three  great  principles  of  Congregationalism :  a  right  faith 
attended  by  a  true  religious  experience  as  the  requisite 
qualifications  for  membership ;  the  equality  of  all  believers, 


1630.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    283 

including  the  officers  of  the  church;  the  equality  of  the 
several  churches,  free  from  the  jurisdiction  of  ecclesiastical 
court  or  bishop,  free  from  the  jurisdiction  of  one  church 
over  another,  free  from  the  collective  authority  of  them  all. 

The  civil  government  was  exercised  with  mildness  and 
impartiality,  yet  with  determined  vigor.     Justices  of  the 
peace  were  commissioned  with  the  powers  of  those 
in  England.     On  the  seventh  of  September,  names       1630. 
were  given  to  Dorchester,  Watertown,  and  Boston, 
which  thus  began  their  career  as  towns  under  sanction  of 
law.     Quotas  were  settled  and  money  levied.     The  inter- 
loper who  dared  to  "  confront "  the  public  authority  was 
sent  to  England,  or  enjoined  to  depart  out  of  the  limits  of 
the  patent. 

As  the  year  for  which  Winthrop  and  the  assistants  had 
been  chosen  was  coming  to  an  end,  on  the  nineteenth  of 
October,  a  general  court,  the  first  in  America,  was  held  at 
Boston.  Of  members  of  the  company,  less  than  twenty 
had  come  over.  One  hundred  and  eight  inhabitants,  some 
of  whom  were  old  planters,  were  now,  at  their  desire,  ad- 
mitted to  be  freemen.  The  former  officers  of  government 
were  continued :  as  a  rule  for  the  future, "  it  was  pro- 
pounded to  the  people,  and  assented  unto  by  the  erection  of 
hands,  that  the  freemen  should  have  power  to  choose  assist- 
ants, when  any  were  to  be  chosen ;  the  assistants  to  choose 
from  among  themselves  the  governor  and  his  deputy."  The 
rule  implied  a  strong  reluctance  to  leave  out  of  the  board 
any  person  once  elected  magistrate ;  and  perhaps  also  re- 
vealed a  natural  anxiety  respecting  the  effect  of  the  large 
creation  of  freemen  which  had  just  been  made,  and  by 
which  the  old  members  of  the  company  had  abdicated  their 
controlling  power  in  the  court ;  but,  as  it  was  in  conflict 
with  the  charter,  it  could  have  no  permanence. 

During  these  events,  sickness  delayed  the  progress  of  the 
settlements,  and  death  often  withdrew  the  laborer  from  the 
fruit  of  his  exertions.  Every  hardship  was  encountered. 
The  emigrants,  miserably  lodged,  beheld  their  friends 
"  weekly,  yea,  almost  daily,  drop  away  before  their  eyes  ; " 
in  a  country  abounding  in  secret  fountains,  they  pined  for 


284  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX, 

the  want  of  good  water.  Many  of  them  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  plenty  and  ease,  the  refinements,  and  the  conven- 
iences of  luxury.  Woman  was  there  to  struggle  against 
unforeseen  hardships,  unwonted  sorrows ;  the  men,  who 
defied  trials  for  themselves,  were  miserable  at  beholding 
those  whom  they  cherished  dismayed  by  the  horrors  which 
encompassed  them.  The  virtues  of  the  lady  Arbella  John- 
son could  not  break  through  the  gloom;  and,  as  she  had 
been  ill  before  her  arrival,  grief  hurried  her  to  the  grave. 
Her  husband,  a  wise  and  holy  man,  in  life  "  the  greatest 
furtherer  of  the  plantation,"  and  by  his  bequests  a  large 
benefactor  of  the  infant  state,  sank  under  disease  and  af- 
flictions; but  "he  died  willingly  and  in  sweet  peace," 
making  a  "most  godly  end."  Winthrop  lost  a  son,  who 
left  a  widow  and  children  in  England.  A  hundred  or  more, 
some  of  them  of  the  board  of  assistants,  men  who  had  been 
trusted  as  the  inseparable  companions  of  the  common  misery 
or  the  common  success,  disheartened  by  the  scenes  of  woe, 
and  dreading  famine  and  death,  deserted  Massachusetts, 
and  sailed  for  England ;  while  Winthrop  remained,  "  parent- 
like,  to  distribute  his  goods  to  brethren  and  neighbors." 
1630.  Before  December,  two  hundred,  at  the  least,  had  died. 
Yet,  as  the  brightest  lightnings  are  kindled  in  the 
darkest  clouds,  the  general  distress  did  but  augment  the  piety 
and  confirm  the  fortitude  of  the  colonists.  Their  earnest- 
ness was  softened  by  the  mildest  sympathy ;  while  trust  in 
Providence  kept  guard  against  weakness  and  despair.  Not 
a  trace  of  repining  appears  in  their  records ;  the  congrega- 
tions always  assembled  at  the  stated  times,  whether  in  the 
open  fields  or  under  the  shade  of  an  ancient  oak ;  in  the 
midst  of  want,  they  abounded  in  hope  ;  in  the  solitudes  of 
the  wilderness,  they  believed  themselves  watched  over  by 
an  omnipresent  Father.  Honor  is  due  not  less  to  those 
who  perished  than  to  those  who  survived :  to  the  martyrs, 
the  hour  of  death  was  an  hour  of  triumph  such  as  is  never 
witnessed  in  more  tranquil  seasons.  For  that  placid  res- 
ignation, which  diffuses  grace  round  the  bed  of  sickness, 
and  makes  death  too  serene  for  sorrow  and  too  beautiful 
for  fear,  no  one  was  more  remarkable  than  the  daughter 


1631.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     285 

of  Thomas  Sharpe,  whose  youth  and  sex  and  unequalled 
virtues  won  the  eulogies  of  the  austere  Dudley.  Even 
children  caught  the  spirit  of  the  place ;  awaited  the  im- 
pending change  in  the  tranquil  confidence  of  faith,  and 
went  to  the  grave  full  of  immortality.  The  survivors  bore 
all  things  meekly,  "  remembering  the  end  of  their  coming 
hither."  "We  here  enjoy  God  and  Jesus  Christ,"  wrote 
Winthrop  to  his  wife,  whom  pregnancy  had  detained  in 
England,  "  and  is  not  this  enough  ?  I  thank  God  I  like  so 
well  to  be  here,  as  I  do  not  repent  my  coming.  I  would 
not  have  altered  my  course,  though  I  had  foreseen  all  these 
afflictions.  I  never  had  more  content  of  mind." 

The  supply  of  bread  was  nearly  exhausted  ;  when 
on  the  fifth  of  February,  1631,  after  a  long  and  IGSL 
stormy  passage,  the  timely  arrival  of  the  "  Lyon  " 
from  Bristol,  laden  with  provisions,  caused  public  thanks- 
giving through  all  the  plantations.  Yet  the  ship  brought 
but  twenty  passengers,  and  quenched  all  liope  of  immediate 
accessions.  In  1631,  ninety  only  came  over,  fewer  than 
had  gone  back  the  preceding  year ;  in  1632,  no  more  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  arrived.  Men  waited  to  learn  the 
success  of  the  early  adventurers.  Those  who  had  deserted 
excused  their  cowardice  by  defaming  the  country;  and, 
moreover,  ill-willers  to  New  England  were  already  railing 
against  its  people  as  separatists  from  the  established  church 
and  traitors  to  the  king. 

The  colony,  now  counting  not  many  more  than  one  thou- 
sand souls,  while  it  developed  its  principles  with  unflinching 
courage,  desired  to  avoid  giving  scandal  to  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  government  in  England.  Wilson  was  on  the 
point  of  returning  to  bring  over  his  wife  ;  his  church  stood 
in  special  need  of  a  teacher  in  his  absence,  and  a  young 
minister,  "lovely  in  his  carriage,"  "godly  and  zealous, 
having  precious  gifts,"  opportunely  arrived  in  the  "  Lyon." 
It  was  Roger  Williams.  "  From  his  childhood,  the  Father 
of  lights  and  mercies  touched  his  soul  with  a  love  to  him- 
self, to  his  only-begotten  Son,  the  true  Lord  Jesus,  and  his 
holy  Scriptures."  In  the  forming  period  of  his  life,  he  had 
been  employed  by  Sir  Edward  Coke,  and  his  natural 


286  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

inclination  to  study  and  activity  was  spurred  on  by  the 
instruction  and  encouragement  of  the  statesman,  who  was 
then  "  in  his  intrepid  and  patriotic  old  age,  the  strenuous 
asserter  of  liberty  on  the  principles  of  ancient  laws,"  and 
by  his  wi'itings,  speeches,  and  example,  lighted  the  zealous 
enthusiast  on  his  way.  Through  the  affection  of  the  great 
lawyer,  who  called  him  endearingly  his  son,  "  the  youth," 
in  whom  all  saw  good  hope,  was  sent  to  the  Charter  House 
in  1621,  and  passed  with  honor  from  that  school  to  Pem- 
broke College,  in  Cambridge,  where  he  took  a  degree  ;  but 
his  clear  mind  went  far  beyond  his  patron  in  his  persuasions 
against  bishops,  ceremonies,  and  the  national  church ;  and 
he  was  pursued  by  Laud  out  of  his  native  land.  He  was 
not  much  more  than  thirty  years  of  age  ;  but  his  mind  had 
already  matured  a  doctrine  which  secures  him  an  immortal- 
ity of  fame,  as  its  application  has  given  religious  peace  to 
the  American  world.  A  fugitive  from  English  persecution, 
he  had  revolved  the  nature  of  intolerance,  and  had  arrived 
at  its  only  effectual  remedy,  the  sanctity  of  conscience.  In 
soul  matters,  he  would  have  no  weapons  but  soul  weapons. 

The  civil  magistrate  should  restrain  crime,  but  never 
1631.  control  opinion  ;  should  punish  guilt,  but  never  violate 

inward  freedom.  The  principle  contained  within  itself 
an  entire  reformation  of  theological  jurisprudence  :  it  would 
blot  from  the  statute-book  the  felony  of  non-conformity; 
would  quench  the  fires  that  persecution  had  so  long  kept 
burning  ;  would  repeal  every  law  compelling  attendance  on 
public  worship  ;  would  abolish  tithes  and  all  forced  contribu- 
tions to  the  maintenance  of  religion  ;  would  give  an  equal 
protection  to  every  form  of  religious  faith  ;  and  never  suf- 
fer the  force  of  the  government  to  be  employed  against  the 
dissenters'  meeting-house,  the  Jewish  synagogue,  or  the  Ro- 
man cathedral.  In  the  unwavering  assertion  of  his  views, 
he  never  changed  his  position;  the  sanctity  of  conscience 
was  the  great  tenet,  which,  with  all  its  consequences,  he 
defended,  as  he  first  trod  the  shores  of  New  England ;  and, 
in  his  extreme  old  age,  it  was  the  last  pulsation  of  his 
heart.  The  doctrine  was  a  logical  consequence  of  either  of 
the  two  great  distinguishing  principles  of  the  Reformation, 


1631.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    287 

as  well  of  justification  by  faith  alone  as  of  the  equality  of 
all  believers;  and  it  was  sure  to  be  one  day  accepted  by 
the  whole  Protestant  world.  But  it  placed  the  young 
emigrant  in  direct  opposition  to  the  system  of  the  founders 
of  Massachusetts,  who  were  bent  on  making  the  state  a 
united  body  of  believers. 

On  landing  in  Boston,  Roger  Williams  found  him- 

O  *  O 

self  unable  to  join  with  its  church  members.  He  had  IBSL 
separated  from  the  establishment  in  England,  which 
wronged  conscience  by  disregarding  its  scruples ;  they  were 
"an  unseparated  people,"  who  refused  to  renounce  com- 
munion with  their  persecutors ;  he  would  not  suffer  the 
magistrate  to  assume  jurisdiction  over  the  soul  by  punish- 
ing what  was  no  more  than  a  breach  of  the  first  table,  an 
error  of  conscience  or  belief ;  they  were  willing  to  put  the 
whole  decalogue  under  the  guardianship  of  the  civil  au- 
thority. The  thought  of  employing  him  as  a  minister  was 
therefore  abandoned ;  and  the  church  of  Boston  was,  in  Wil- 
son's absence,  commended  to  "  the  exercise  of  prophecy." 

The  death  of  Higginson  had  left  Salem  in  want  of  a 
teacher;  and  in  April  it  called  Williams  to  that  office. 
Winthrop  and  the  assistants  "  marvelled  "  at  the  precipitate 
choice;  and,  by  a  letter  to  Endecott,  they  desired  the 
church  to  forbear.  The  warning  was  heeded,  and  Roger 
Williams  withdrew  to  Plymouth. 

The  government  was  still  more  careful  to  protect  the 
privileges  of  the  colony  against  "  episcopal  and  malignant 
practices,"  of  which  a  warning  had  been  received  from  Eng- 
land. For  that  purpose,  at  the  general  court  convened  in 
May,  after  "the  corn  was  set,"  an  oath  of  fidelity  was 
offered  to  the  freemen,  binding  them  "  to  be  obedient  and 
conformable  to  the  laws  and  constitutions  of  this  common- 
wealth, to  advance  its  peace,  and  not  to  suffer  any  attempt 
at  making  any  change  or  alteration  of  the  government  con- 
trary to  its  laws."  One  hundred  and  eighteen  of  "  the  com-  • 
monalty  "  took  this  oath ;  the  few  who  refused  were  never 
"  betrusted  with  any  public  charge  or  command."  The  old 
officers  were  again  continued  in  office  without  change,  but 
"  the  commons  "  asserted  their  right  of  annually  adding  or 


288  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

removing  members  from  the  bench  of  magistrates.  And  a 
law  of  still  greater  moment,  pregnant  with  evil  and  with 
good,  at  the  same  time  narrowed  the  elective  franchise  : 
"  To  the  end  this  body  of  the  commons  may  be  preserved 
of  honest  and  good  men,  it  was  ordered  and  agreed  that, 
for  the  time  to  come,  no  man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  free- 
dom of  this  body  politic,  but  such  as  are  members  of  some 
of  the  churches  within  the  limits  of  the  same."  Thus  the 
polity  became  a  theocracy  ;  God  himself  was  to  govern  his 
people  ;  and  the  "  saints  by  calling,"  whose  names  an  immu- 
table decree  had  registered  from  eternity  as  the  objects  of 
divine  love,  whose  election  had  been  visibly  manifested  by 
their  conscious  experience  of  religion  in  the  heart,  whose 
union  was  confirmed  by  the  most  solemn  compact  formed 
with  Heaven  and  one  another  around  the  memorials  of  a 
crucified  Redeemer,  were,  by  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
colony,  constituted  the  oracle  of  the  divine  will.  An  aris- 
tocracy was  founded ;  not  of  wealth,  but  of  those  who  had 
been  ransomed  at  too  high  a  price  to  be  ruled  by  polluting 
passions,  and  had  received  the  seal  of  divinity  in  proof  of 
their  fitness  to  do  "  the  noblest  and  godliest  deeds."  Other 
states  have  confined  political  rights  to  the  opulent,  to  free- 
holders, to  the  first-born ;  the  Calvinists  of  Massachusetts, 
refusing  any  share  of  civil  power  to  the  clergy,  established 
the  reign  of  the  visible  church,  a  commonwealth  of  the 
chosen  people  in  covenant  with  God. 

The  dangers  apprehended  from  England  seemed  to   re- 
quire a  union  consecrated  by  the  holiest  rites.     The  public 

mind  of  the  colony  was  in  other  respects  ripening  for 
1631.       democratic  liberty.    It  could  not  rest  satisfied  with 

leaving  the  assistants  in  possession  of  all  authority, 
and  of  an  almost  independent  existence ;  and  the  magistrates, 
with  the  exception  of  the  passionate  Ludlow,  were  willing  to 
yield.  It  was  therefore  agreed,  at  the  next  general  court, 
'that  the  governor  and  assistants  should  be  annually  chosen. 
The  people,  satisfied  with  the  recognition  of  their  right, 
re-elected  their  former  magistrates  with  silence  and  mod- 
esty. The  germ  of  a  representative  government  was  al- 
ready visible ;  each  town  was  ordered  to  choose  two  men, 


1633.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     289 

to  appear  at  the  next  court  of  assistants,  and  concert  a  plan 
for  a  public  treasury.  The  measure  had  become  necessary ; 
for  a  levy,  made  by  the  assistants  alone,  had  already 
awakened  alarm  and  opposition. 

While  a  happy  destiny  was  thus  preparing  for  Massa- 
chusetts a  representative  government,  relations  with 
the  natives  were   extended.     In  April,  1631,  there 
came  from  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut  the   saga- 
more of  the  Mohegans,  to  extol  the  fertility  of  his  country, 
and  solicit  an  English  plantation  as  a  bulwark  against 
the  Pequods ;  in  May,  the  nearer  Nipmucks  invoked  May  ie. 
the   aid   of  the   emigrants   against   the   tyranny  of 
the  Mohawks ;  in  July,  the  son  of  the  aged  Canoni-  July  13. 
cus  exchanged  presents  with  the  governor ;   and  in 
August,  Miantonomoh  himself,  the  great  warrior  of   2^'s 
the  Narragansetts,  the  youthful  colleague  of  Canoni- 
cus,  became  a  guest  at  the   board   of  Winthrop,  and  was 
present  with  the  congregation  at  a  sermon  from  Wilson. 

To  perfect  friendship  with   the   pilgrims,  the   governor 
of  Massachusetts,  with  Wilson,  pastor   of   Boston, 
repaired  to  Plymouth.      From  the  south   shore   of  Oct.  26. 
Boston   harbor,  it  was   a   day's  journey ;   for  they 
travelled  on  foot.     In  honor  of  the  great  event,  Bradford 
and  Brewster,  the  governor  and  elder  of  the  old  colony, 
came  forth  to  meet  them,  and  conduct  them  to  the  town, 
where   they  were  kindly   entertained   and  feasted. 
"  On  the  Lord's  Day,  they  did  partake  of  the  sacra-  Oct.  28. 
ment ; "  in  the  afternoon,  a  question  was  propounded 
for  discussion  ;  the  pastor  spoke  briefly ;  the  teacher  proph- 
esied ;  the  governor  of  Plymouth,  the  elder,  and  others  of 
the  congregation,  took  part  in  the  conference,  which,  by  ex- 
press desire,  was  closed  by  the  guests  from  Boston.     Thus 
was  fellowship  confirmed  with  Plymouth.    From  the  Chesa- 
peake, a  rich  freight  of  corn  had  already  been  received; 
and  trade  was  begun  with  the  Dutch  at  Hudson  River. 

These  better  auspices,  and  the  invitations  of  Winthrop, 
won  new  emigrants  from  Europe.     During  the  long 
summer  voyage  of  the  two  hundred  passengers,  who    July  & 
freighted  the  "  Griffin,"  three  sermons  a  day  beguiled 
VOL.  i.  19 


290  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

their  weariness.  Among  them  was  Haynes,  a  man  of  very 
large  estate,  and  larger  affections ;  of  a  "  heavenly  " 
less.  mind,  and  a  spotless  life ;  of  rare  sagacity,  and  accurate 
but  unassuming  judgment ;  by  nature  tolerant,  ever 
a  friend  to  freedom,  ever  conciliating  peace  ;  an  able  legis- 
lator; dear  to  the  people  by  his  benevolent  virtues  and 
his  disinterested  conduct.  Then  also  came  the  most  re- 
vered spiritual  teachers  of  two  commonwealths  :  the  acute 
and  subtile  Cotton,  the  son  of  a  Puritan  lawyer ;  eminent 
at  Cambridge  as  a  scholar;  quick  in  the  nice  perception 
of  distinctions,  and  pliant  in  dialectics ;  in  manner  persua- 
sive rather  than  commanding;  skilled  in  the  fathers  and 
the  schoolmen,  but  finding  all  their  wisdom  compactly 
stored  in  Calvin  ;  deeply  devout  by  nature  as  well  as  habit 
from  childhood ;  hating  heresy  and  still  precipitately  eager 
to  prevent  evil  actions  by  suppressing  ill  opinions,  yet 
verging  towards  a  progress  in  truth  and  in  religious  free- 
dom ;  an  avowed  enemy  to  democracy,  which  he  feared  as 
the  blind  despotism  of  animal  instincts  in  the  multitude, 
yet  opposing  hereditary  power  in  all  its  forms ;  desiring 
a  government  of  moral  opinion,  according  to  the  laws  of 
universal  equity,  and  claiming  "  the  ultimate  resolution  for 
the  whole  body  of  the  people  :  "  and  Hooker,  of  vast  endow- 
ments, a  strong  will,  and  an  energetic  mind ;  ingenuous  in 

'  O  *  O  •*  O 

his  temper,  and  open  in  his  professions  ;  trained  to  benevo- 
lence by  the  discipline  of  affliction  ;  versed  in  tolerance  by 
his  refuge  in  Holland ;  choleric,  yet  gentle  in  his  affections  ; 
firm  in  his  faith,  yet  readily  yielding  to  the  power  of 
reason ;  the  peer  of  the  reformers,  without  their  harsh- 
ness ;  the  devoted  apostle  to  the  humble  and  the  poor, 
severe  towards  the  proud,  mild  in  his  soothings  of  a 
wounded  spirit,  glowing,  with  the  raptures  of  devotion, 
and  kindling  with  the  messages  of  redeeming  love ;  his 
eye,  voice,  gesture,  and  whole  frame  animate  with  the 
living  vigor  of  heart-felt  religion ;  public-spirited  and  lav- 
ishly charitable  ;  and,  "  though  persecutions  and  banish- 
ments had  awaited  him  as  one  wave  follows  another,"  ever 
serenely  blessed  with  "  a  glorious  peace  of  soul ;  "  fixed  in 
his  trust  in  Providence,  and  in  his  adhesion  to  that  cause 


1634.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     291 

of  advancing  civilization,  which  he  cherished  always,  even 
while  it  remained  to  him  a  mystery.     This  was  he  whom, 
for  his  abilities  and  services,  his  contemporaries  placed  "  in 
the  first  rank "  of  men ;   praising  him  as  "  the   one   rich 
pearl,  with  which  Europe  more  than  repaid  America  for 
the  treasures  from  her  coast."     The  people  to  whom 
Hooker  ministered  had  preceded  him  ;  as  he  landed,   sl^'^ 
they  crowded  about  him  with  their  welcome.    "  Now 
I  live,"  exclaimed  he,  as  with  open  arms  he  embraced  them, 
"  now  I  live,  if  ye  stand  fast  in  the  Lord." 

Thus  recruited,  the  little  band  in  Massachusetts  1634. 
grew  more  jealous  of  its  liberties.  "  The  prophets 
in  exile  see  the  true  forms  of  the  house."  By  a  common 
impulse,  the  freemen  of  the  towns  chose  deputies  to  con- 
sider in  advance  the  duties  of  the  general  court.  The 
charter  plainly  gave  legislative  power  to  the  whole  body 
of  the  freemen ;  if  it  allowed  representatives,  thought  "Win  • 
throp,  it  was  only  by  inference  ;  and,  as  the  whole  people 
could  not  always  assemble,  the  chief  power,  it  was  argued, 
lay  necessarily  with  the  assistants. 

Far  different  was  the  reasoning  of  the  people.  To 
check  the  democratic  tendency,  Cotton,  on  the  elec-  May. 
tion  day,  preached  to  the  assembled  freemen  against 
rotation  in  office.  The  right  of  an  honest  magistrate  to  his 
place  was  like  that  of  a  proprietor  to  his  freehold.  But 
the  electors,  now  between  three  and  four  hundred  in  num- 
ber, were  bent  on  exercising  "  their  absolute  power,"  and, 
reversing  the  decision  of  the  pulpit,  chose  a  new  governor 
and  deputy.  The  mode  of  taking  the  votes  was  at  the 
same  time  reformed ;  and,  instead  of  the  erection  of  hands, 
the  ballot-box  was  introduced.  Thus  "the  people  estab- 
lished a  reformation  of  such  things  as  they  judged  to  be 
amiss  in  the  government." 

It  was  further  decreed  that  the  whole  body  of  the  free- 
men should  be  convened  only  for  the  election  of  the  mag- 
istrates :  to  these,  with  deputies  to  be  chosen  by  the  several 
towns,  the  powers  of  legislation  and  appointment  were 
henceforward  intrusted.  The  trading  corporation  was  un- 
consciously become  a  representative  democracy. 


292  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

The  law  against  arbitrary  taxation  followed.  None  but 
the  immediate  representatives  of  the  people  might  dispose 
of  lands  or  raise  money.  Thus  early  did  Massachusetts 
echo  the  voice  of  Virginia,  like  deep  calling  unto  deep. 
The  state  was  filled  with  the  hum  of  village  politicians; 
"  the  freemen  of  every  town  in  the  Bay  were  busy  in 
inquiring  into  their  liberties  and  privileges."  With  the 
exception  of  the  principle  of  universal  suffrage,  now  so 
happily  established,  the  representative  democracy  was  as 
perfect  two  centuries  ago  as  it  is  to-day.  Even  the  magis- 
trates, who  acted  as  judges,  held  their  office  by  the  annual 
popular  choice.  "  Elections  cannot  be  safe  there  long," 
said  the  lawyer  Lechford.  The  same  prediction  has  been 
made  these  two  hundred  years.  The  public  mind,  ever  in 
perpetual  agitation,  is  still  easily  shaken,  even  by  slight 
and  transient  impulses ;  but,  after  all  vibrations,  it  fol- 
lows the  laws  of  the  moral  world,  and  safely  recovers  its 
balance. 

To  limit  the  discretion  of  the  executive,  of  which  the 
people  was  persistently  jealous,  they  next  demanded 
^y  a  written  constitution ;  and  in  May,  1635,  a  commis- 
sion was  appointed  "  to  frame  a  body  of  grounds  of 
laws  in  resemblance  to  a  magna  charta,"  to  serve  as  a  bill 
of  rights,  on  which  the  ministers,  as  well  as  the  general 
court,  were  to  pass  judgment.  A  year  having  passed  with- 
out a  report,  the  making  of  a  draft  of  laws  was  intrusted 
to  a  larger  committee,  of  which  Cotton  was  a  member.  His 
colleagues  remained  inactive,  but  Cotton  compiled  in  an 
exact  method  "  all  the  judicial  laws  from  God  by  Moses,  so 
far  as  they  were  of  moral,  that  is,  of  perpetual  and  universal 
equity ; "  and  he  urged  the  establishment  of  a  "  theocraty, 
God's  government  over  God's  people."  But  his  code  was 
never  adopted.  In  March,  1638,  the  several  towns  were 
ordered  before  the  coming  June  to  deliver  in  writing  to 
the  governor  the  heads  of  the  laws  which  they  held  to 
be  necessary  and  fundamental;  and,  from  these  materials 
and  their  own  wisdom,  a  numerous  body,  of  whom  Na- 
thaniel Ward  was  one,  were  instructed  to  perfect  the  whole 
work. 


1644.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     293 

The  relative  powers  of  the  assistants  and  the 
deputies  remained  for  nearly  ten  years  the  subject 
of  discussion  and  contest.  Both  were  elected  by  the 
people ;  the  former  by  the  whole  colony,  the  latter  by  the 
several  towns.  •  The  two  bodies  sat  together  in  convention 
for  the  transaction  of  business ;  but,  when  their  joint  deci- 
sion displeased  the  assistants,  the  latter  claimed  and  exer- 
cised the  further  right  of  a  separate  negative  vote  on  their 
joint  proceedings.  The  popular  branch  grew  impatient,  and 
desired  to  overthrow  the  veto  power ;  yet  the  authority  of 
the  patricians  was  for  the  time  maintained,  sometimes  by 
wise  delay,  sometimes  by  "  a  judicious  sermon." 

The  controversy  had  required  the  arbitrament  of  the 
elders  ;  for  the  rock  on  which  the  state  rested  was  religion ; 
a  common  faith  had  gathered,  and  still  bound  the  people 
together.  They  were  exclusive,  for  they  had  come  to  the 
outside  of  the  world  for  the  privilege  of  living  by  them- 
selves. Fugitives  from  persecution,  they  shrank  from  con- 
tradiction as  from  the  approach  of  peril.  And  why  should 
they  open  their  asylum  to  their  oppressors?  Religious 
union  was  made  the  bulwark  of  the  exiles  against  expected 
attacks  from  the  hierarchy  of  England.  The  wide  con- 
tinent of  America  invited  colonization  ;  they  claimed  their 
own  narrow  domains  for  "  the  brethren."  Their  religion 
was  their  life  ;  they  welcomed  none  but  its  adherents ;  they 
could  not  tolerate  the  scoffer,  the  infidel,  or  the  dissenter ; 
and  the  whole  people  met  together  in  their  congregations. 
Such  was  the  system,  cherished  as  the  stronghold  of  their 
freedom  and  their  happiness.  "  The  order  of  the  churches 
and  the  commonwealth,"  wrote  Cotton  to  friends  in  Hol- 
land, "  is  now  so  settled  in  New  England  by  common  con- 
sent, that  it  brings  to  mind  the  new  heaven  and  new  earth 
wherein  dwells  righteousness." 

While  the  state  was  thus  connecting  by  the  closest  bonds 
the  energy  of  its  faith  with  its  form  of  government,  Roger 
Williams,  after  remaining  two  years  or  a  little  more  in 
Plymouth,  accepted  a  second  invitation  to  Salem.  The 
ministers  in  the  Bay  and  of  Lynn  used  to  meet  once  a 
fortnight  at  each  other's  houses,  to  debate  some  question 


294  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

less.  of  moment ;  at  this,  in  November,  1633,  Skelton  and 
Williams  took  some  exception,  for  fear  the  custom 
might  grow  into  a  presbytery  or  a  superintendency,  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  church's  liberties  ;  but  such* a  purpose  was 
disclaimed,  and  all  were  clear  that  no  church  or  person  can 
have  power  over  another  church.  Not  long  after- 
1634.  wards,  in  January,  1634,  complaints  were  made 
against  Williams  for  a  paper  which  he  had  written 
at  Plymouth,  to  prove  that  a  grant  of  land  in  New  England 
from  an  English  king  could  not  be  perfect,  except  the  gran- 
tees "  compounded  with  the  natives."  The  opinion  sounded 
like  treason  against  the  charter  of  the  colony ;  Williams 
was  willing  that  the  offensive  manuscript  should  be  burned ; 
and  so  explained  its  purport  that  the  court,  applauding  his 
temper,  declared  "  the  matters  not  so  evil  as  at  first  they 
seemed." 

Yet  his  gentleness  and  forbearance  did  not  allay  a  jeal- 
ousy of  his  radical  opposition  to  the  established  system  of 
theocracy,  which  he  condemned,  because  it  plucked  up  the 
roots  of  civil  society  and  brought  all  the  strifes  of  the  state 
into  the  garden  and  paradise  of  the  church.  The  govern- 
ment avoided  an  explicit  rupture  with  the  church  of  Eng- 
land; Williams  would  hold  no  communion  with  it  on 
account  of  its  intolerance ;  "  for,"  said  he,  "  the  doctrine 
of  persecution  for  cause  of  conscience  is  most  evidently 
and  lamentably  contrary  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ  Jesus." 
The  magistrates  insisted  on  the  presence  of  every  man  at 
public  worship ;  Williams  reprobated  the  law ;  the  worst 
statute  in  the  English  code  was  that  which  did  but  enforce 
attendance  upon  the  parish  church.  To  compel  men  to 
unite  with  those  of  a  different  creed,  he  regarded  as  an 
open  violation  of  their  natural  rights ;  to  drag  to  public  wor- 
ship the  irreligious  and  the  unwilling  seemed  only  like  re- 
quiring hypocrisy.  "  An  unbelieving  soul  is  dead  in  sin," 
such  was  his  argument ;  and  to  force  the  indifferent  from 
one  worship  to  another  "  was  like  shifting  a  dead  man  into 
several  changes  of  apparel."  "  No  one  should  be  bound  to 
worship,  or,"  he  added,  "  to  maintain  a  worship,  against  his 
own  consent."  "  What ! "  exclaimed  his  antagonists,  amazed 


1634.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     295 

at  his  tenets ;   "  is  not  the  laborer  worthy  of  his  hire  ? " 
"  Yes,"  replied  he,  "  from  them  that  hire  him." 

The  magistrates  were  selected  exclusively  from  the  mem- 
bers of  the  church  ;  with  equal  propriety,  reasoned  Williams, 
might  "  a  doctor  of  physick  or  a  pilot "  be  selected  accord- 
ing to  his  skill  in  theology  and  his  standing  in  the  church. 

It  was  objected  to  him  that  his  principles  subverted  all 
good  government.  The  commander  of  the  vessel  of  state, 
replied  Williams,  may  maintain  order  on  board  the  ship, 
and  see  that  it  pursues  its  course  steadily,  even  though  the 
dissenters  of  the  crew  are  not  compelled  to  attend  the  pub- 
lic prayers  of  their  companions. 

But  the  controversy  finally  turned  on  the  question  of  the 
rights  and  duty  of  magistrates  to  guard  the  minds  of  the 
people  against  corrupting  influences,  and  to  punish  what 
would  seem  to  them  error  and  heresy.  Magistrates,  Wil- 
liams protested,  are  but  the  agents  of  the  people,  or  its 
trustees,  on  whom  no  spiritual  power  in  matters  of  worship 
can  ever  be  conferred,  since  conscience  belongs  to  the  in- 
dividual, and  is  not  the  property  of  the  body  politic ;  and 
with  admirable  dialectics,  clothing  the  great  truth  in  its 
boldest  and  most  general  forms,  he  asserted  that  "  the  civil 
magistrate  may  not  intermeddle  even  to  stop  a  church  from 
apoutacy  and  heresy,"  "  that  his  power  extends  only  to  the 
bodies  and  goods  and  outward  estate  of  men."  With  cor- 
responding distinctness,  he  foresaw  the  influence  of  his 
principles  on  society.  "  The  removal  of  the  yoke  of  soul- 
oppression,"  to  use  the  words  in  which,  at  a  later  day,  he 
confirmed  his  early  view,  "  as  it  will  prove  an  act  of  mercy 
and  righteousness  to  the  enslaved  nations,  so  it  is  of  binding 
force  to  engage  the  whole  and  every  interest  and  conscience 
to  preserve  the  common  liberty  and  peace." 

The   same   magistrates  who  punished  Eliot,  the 
apostle  of  the  Indian  race,  for  censuring  their  meas-  Nov*27. 
ures,  could  not  brook  the  independence  of  Williams ; 
and  the  circumstances  of  the  times  seemed  to  them  to  justify 
their  apprehensions.     An   intense  jealousy  was   ex- 
cited in  England  against  Massachusetts ;  "  members       Deo 
of  the  generall  court  received  intelligence  of  some 


296  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

episcopal  and  malignant  practises  against  the  country ; " 
and  the  magistrates  on  the  one  hand  were  careful  to  avoid 
all  unnecessary  offence  to  the  English  government,  on  the 
other  were  consolidating  their  own  institutions,  and  even 
preparing  for  resistance.  It  was  in  this  view  that  the  free- 
man's oath  was  appointed,  by  which  every  freeman  was 
obliged  to  pledge  his  allegiance,  not  to  King  Charles,  but  to 
Massachusetts.  There  was  room  for  scruples  on  the  sub- 
ject; and  an  English  lawyer  would  have  questioned  the 
legality  of  the  measure.  The  liberty  of  conscience,  for 
which  Williams  contended,  denied  the  right  of  a 
Marfso  compulsory  imposition  of  an  oath :  when  he  was  sum- 
moned before  the  court,  he  could  not  renounce  his 
belief ;  and  his  influence  was  such  "  that  the  government 
was  forced  to  desist  from  that  proceeding."  To  the  magis- 
trates, he  seemed  the  ally  of  a  civil  faction ;  to  himself,  he 
appeared  only  to  make  a  frank  avowal  of  the  truth.  Before 
the  tribunals,  he  spoke  with  the  distinctness  of  clear  and 
settled  convictions.  He  was  fond  of  discussion ;  and  to 
the  end  of  his  life  he  was  always  ready  for  controversy,  as 
the  means  "  to  bolt  out  the  truth  to  the  bran." 

The  court  at  Boston  remained  as  yet  undecided ;  when 
the  church  of  Salem,  —  those  who  were  best  acquainted 
with  Williams,  —  taking  no  notice  of  the  recent  investiga- 
tions, elected  him  their  teacher.  Immediately  the  ministers 
met  together,  and  declared  any  one  worthy  of  banishment 
who  should  obstinately  assert  that  "  the  civil  magistrate 
might  not  intermeddle  even  to  stop  a  church  from  apostasy 
and  heresy ; "  the  magistrates  delayed  action,  only 
Julys,  that  a  committee  of  divines  might  have  time  to  re- 
pair to  Salem  and  deal  with  Williams  and  with  the 
church  in  a  church  way.  Meantime,  the  people  of  Salem 
were  blamed  for  their  choice  of  a  religious  guide;  and  a 
tract  of  land,  to  which  they  had  a  claim,  was  withheld  from 
them  as  a  punishment. 

To  the  ministers  Williams  frankly  but  temperately  ex- 
plained his  doctrines ;  and  he  was  armed  at  all  points  for 
their  defence.  As  his  townsmen  had  lost  their  lands  in 
consequence  of  their  attachment  to  him,  it  would  have  been 


1635.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    297 

cowardice  on  his  part  to  have  abandoned  them.  In  con- 
junction with  the  church,  he  wrote  "  letters  of  admonition 
unto  all  the  churches  whereof  any  of  the  magistrates  were 
members,  that  they  might  admonish  the  magistrates  of  their 
injustice."  The  church  members  alone  were  freemen ; 
Williams,  in  modern  language,  appealed  to  the  people,  and 
invited  them  to  instruct  their  representatives  to  do  justice 
to  the  citizens  of  Salem. 

This  last  act  seemed  flagrant  treason ;  and,  at  the  next 
general  court,  Salem  was  disfranchised  till  an  ample  apology 
for  the  letter  should  be  made.  The  town  acquiesced  in  its 
wrongs,  and  submitted ;  not  an  individual  remained  willing 
to  justify  the  letter  of  remonstrance;  the  church  of  Wil- 
liams would  not  avow  his  great  principle  of  the  sanctity  of 
conscience.  Williams  was  left  alone,  absolutely  alone.  An- 
ticipating the  censures  of  the  colonial  churches,  he  declared 
himself  no  longer  subjected  to  their  spiritual  jurisdiction. 
"  My  own  voluntary  withdrawing  from  all  these  churches, 
resolved  to  continue  in  persecuting  the  witnesses  of  the 
Lord,  presenting  light  unto  them,  I  confess  it  was  mine  own 
voluntary  act ;  yea,  I  hope  the  act  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  sound- 
ing forth  in  me  the  blast,  which  shall  in  his  own  holy  season 
cast  down  the  strength  and  confidence  of  those  inven- 
tions of  men."  Summoned  in  October  to  appear  ^ 
before  the  general  court,  he  avowed  his  convictions 
in  the  presence  of  the  representatives  of  the  state,  "main- 
tained the  rocky  strength  of  his  grounds,"  and  declared 
himself  "  ready  to  be  bound  and  banished  and  even  to  die 
in  New  England,"  rather  than  renounce  the  opinions  which 
had  dawned  upon  his  mind  in  the  clearness  of  light.  At  a 
time  when  Germany  was  desolated  by  the  implacable  wars 
of  religion ;  when  even  Holland  could  not  pacify  vengeful 
sects ;  when  France  was  still  to  go  through  the  fearful 
struggle  with  bigotry ;  when  England  was  gasping  under 
the  despotism  of  intolerance  ;  almost  half  a  century  before 
William  Penn  became  an  American  proprietary ;  and  two 
years  before  Descartes  founded  modern  philosophy  on  the 
method  of  free  reflection,  Roger  Williams  asserted  the 
great  doctrine  of  intellectual  liberty.  It  became  .his  glory 


298  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX 

to  found  a  state  upon  that  principle,  and  to  stamp  himself 
upon  its  rising  institutions,  in  characters  so  deep  that  the 
impress  has  remained  to  the  present  day,  and  can  never 
be  erased  without  the  total  destruction  of  the  work.  The 
principles  which  he  first  sustained  amidst  the  bickerings  of 
a  colonial  parish,  next  asserted  in  the  general  court  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  then  introduced  into  the  wilds  on 
1644.  Narragansett  Bay,  he  soon  found  occasion  to  publish 
to  the  world,  and  to  defend  as  the  basis  of  the  relig- 
ious freedom  of  mankind ;  so  that,  borrowing  the  rhetoric 
employed  by  his  antagonist  in  derision,  we  may  compare 
him  to  the  lark,  the  pleasant  bird  of  the  peaceful  summer, 
that,  "  affecting  to  soar  aloft,  springs  upward  from  the 
ground,  takes  his  rise  from  pale  to  tree,"  and  at  last,  sur- 
mounting the  highest  hills,  utters  his  clear  carols  through 
the  skies  of  morning.  He  was  the  first  person  in  modern 
Christendom  to  assert  in  its  plenitude  the  doctrine  of  the 
liberty  of  conscience,  the  equality  of  opinions  before  the 
law ;  and  in  its  defence  he  was  the  harbinger  of  Milton, 
the  precursor  and  the  superior  of  Jeremy  Taylor.  For 
Taylor  limited  his  toleration  to  a  few  Christian  sects ;  the 
philanthropy  of  Williams  compassed  the  earth.  Taylor 
favored  partial  reform,  commended  lenity,  argued  for  for- 
bearance, and  entered  a  special  plea  in  behalf  of  each  toler- 
able sect ;  Williams  would  permit  persecution  of  no  opinion, 
of  no  religion,  leaving  heresy  unharmed  by  law,  and  ortho- 
doxy unprotected  by  the  terrors  of  penal  statutes.  Taylor 
clung  to  the  necessity  of  positive  regulations  enforcing 
religion  and  eradicating  error,  like  the  poets,  who  first 
declare  their  hero  to  be  invulnerable,  and  then  clothe  him 
in  earthly  armor;  Williams  was  willing  to  leave  Truth 
alone,  in  her  own  panoply  of  light,  believing  that  if,  in  the 
ancient  feud  between  Truth  and  Error,  the  employment  of 
force  could  be  entirely  abrogated,  Truth  would  have  much 
the  best  of  the  bargain.  It  is  the  custom  of  mankind  to 
award  high  honors  to  the  successful  inquirer  into  the  laws 
of  nature,  to  those  who  .advance  the  bounds  of  human 
knowledge.  We  praise  the  man  who  first  analyzed  the  air, 
or  resolved  water  into  its  elements,  or  drew  the  lightning 


1636.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     299 

from  the  clouds ;  even  though  the  discoveries  may  have 
been  as  much  the  fruits  of  time  as  of  genius.  A  moral 
principle  has  a  much  wider  and  nearer  influence  on  human 
happiness ;  nor  can  any  discovery  of  truth  be  of  more 
direct  benefit  to  society  than  that  which  establishes  a  per- 
petual religious  peace,  and  spreads  tranquillity  through  every 
community  and  every  bosom.  If  Copernicus  is  held  in 
perpetual  reverence,  because,  on  his  death-bed,  he  published 
to  the  world  that  the  sun  is  the  centre  of  our  system ;  if 
the  name  of  Kepler  is  preserved  for  his  sagacity  in  detect- 
ing the  laws  of  the  planetary  motion;  if  the  genius  of 
Newton  has  been  almost  adored  for  dissecting  a  ray  of 
light,  and  weighing  heavenly  bodies  as  in  a  balance,  —  let 
there  be  for  the  name  of  Roger  Williams  a  place  among 
those  who  have  advanced  moral  science  and  made  them- 
selves the  benefactors  of  mankind. 

But,  if  the  opinion  of  posterity  is  no  longer  divided,  less, 
the  members  of  the  general  court  of  that  day  pro- 
nounced against  him  the  sentence  of  exile,  yet  not  by  a 
very  numerous  majority.  Some,  who  consented  to  his  ban- 
ishment, would  never  have  yielded  but  for  the  persuasions 
of  Cotton ;  and  the  judgment  was  vindicated,  not  as  a  pun- 
ishment for  opinion,  or  as  a  restraint  on  freedom  of  con- 
science, but  because  the  application  of  the  new  doctrine  to 
the  construction  of  the  patent,  to  the  discipline  of  the 
churches,  and  to  the  "  oaths  for  making  tryall  of  the  fidelity 
of  the  people,"  seemed  about  "  to  subvert  the  fundamental 
state  and  government  of  the  country." 

Winter  was  at  hand ;  Williams  obtained  permission  to 
remain  till  spring,  intending  then  to  begin  a  plantation  in 
Narragansett  Bay.  But  the  affections  of  the  people  of 
Salem  revived;  they  thronged  to  his  house  to  hear  him 
whom  they  were  so  soon  to  lose  for  ever;  "many  of  the 
people  were  much  taken  with  the  apprehension  of  his  godli- 
ness ; "  his  opinions  were  contagious ;  the  infection  spread 
widely.  It  was  rumored  that  he  could  not  safely  be  allowed 
to  found  a  new  state  in  the  vicinity ;  it  was  therefore  re- 
solved to  remove  him  to  England  in  a  ship  that  was  1636 
just  ready  to  set  sail.  In  January,  1636,  a  warrant  Jan* 


300  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

was  accordingly  sent  to  him  to  come  to  Boston  and  embark. 
For  the  first  time,  he  declined  the  summons  of  the 
1636.  court.  A  pinnace  was  sent  for  him;  the  officers 
repaired  to  his  house ;  he  was  no  longer  there.  Three 
days  before,  he  had  left  Salem,  in  winter  snow  and  inclement 
weather,  of  which  he  remembered  the  severity  even  in  his 
late  old  age.  "  For  fourteen  weeks,  he  was  sorely  tost  in 
a  bitter  season,  not  knowing  what  bread  or  bed  did  mean." 
Often  in  the  stormy  night  he  had  neither  fire,  nor  food, 
nor  company ;  often  he  wandered  without  a  guide,  and  had 
no  house  but  a  hollow  tree.  But  he  was  not  without 
friends.  The  same  scrupulous  respect  for  the  rights  of 
others,  which  had  led  him  to  defend  the  freedom  of  con- 
science, had  made  him  the  champion  of  the  Indians.  He 
had  already  learned  their  language  so  well  that  he  could 
debate  with  them  in  their  own  dialect.  During  his  resi- 
dence at  Plymouth,  he  had  often  been  the  guest  of  the 
neighboring  sachems;  and  now,  when  he  came  in  winter 
to  the  cabin  of  the  chief  of  Pokanoket,  he  was  welcomed 
by  Massassoit;  and  "the  barbarous  heart  of  Canonicus, 
the  chief  of  the  Narragansetts,  loved  him  as  his  son  to 
the  last  gasp."  "The  ravens,"  he  relates,  "fed  me  in  the 
wilderness."  And,  in  requital  for  their  hospitality,  he  was 
ever  through  his  long  life  their  friend  and  benefactor ;  the 
apostle  of  Christianity  to  them  without  hire,  or  weariness, 
or  impatience  at  their  idolatry ;  the  pacificator  of  their  own 
feuds  ;  the  guardian  of  their  rights,  whenever  Europeans 
attempted  an  invasion  of  their  soil. 

He  first  began  to  build  and  plant  at  Seekonk.  But  See- 
konk  was  found  to  be  within  the  patent  of  Plymouth ;  on 
the  other  side  of  the  water,  the  country  opened  in  unap- 
propriated beauty.  "  That  ever-honored  Governor  Win- 
throp,"  says  Williams,  "  privately  wrote  to  me  to  steer  my 
course  to  the  Narragansett  Bay,  encouraging  me  from  the 
freeness  of  the  place  from  English  claims  or  patents.  I 
took  his  prudent  motion  as  a  voice  from  God." 

In  June,  the  lawgiver  of  Rhode  Island,  with  five  com- 
panions, embarked  on  the  stream ;  a  frail  Indian  canoe 
contained  the  founder  of  an  independent  state  and  its  earli- 


1638.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    301 

est  citizens.  Tradition  has  marked  the  spring  near  which 
they  landed ;  it  is  the  parent  spot,  the  first  inhabited  nook 
of  Rhode  Island.  To  express  unbroken  confidence  in  the 
mercies  of  God,  Williams  called  the  place  PROVIDENCE. 
"  I  desired,"  said  he,  "  it  might  be  for  a  shelter  for  persons 
distressed  for  conscience." 

In  his  new  abode,  Williams  could  have  less  leisure  for 
contemplation  and  study.  "  My  time,"  he  observes  of  him- 
self, "  was  not  spent  altogether  in  spiritual  labors  ;  but  day 
and  night,  at  home  and  abroad,  on  the  land  and  water,  at 
the  hoe,  at  the  oar,  for  bread."  Within  two  years,  others 
fled  to  his  asylum.  The  land  which  was  occupied  by  Wil- 
liams was  within  the  territory  of  the  Narragansett 
Indians.  An  Indian  deed  from  Canonicus  and  Mian-  Marf  24. 
tonomoh  soon  made  him  the  undisputed  possessor  of 
an  extensive  domain  ;  but  he  "  always  stood  for  liberty  and 
equality,  both  in  land  and  government."  The  soil  became 
his  "  own,  as  truly  as  any  man's  coat  upon  his  back ; "  and 
he  "  reserved  to  himself  not  one  foot  of  land,  not  one  tittle 
of  political  power,  more  than  he  granted  to  servants  and 
strangers."  "  He  gave  away  his  lands  and  other  estate  to 
them  that  he  thought  were  most  in  want,  until  he  gave 
away  all."  He  chose  to  found  a  commonwealth  in  an 
unmixed  form,  where  the  will  of  the  greater  number  of 
the  present  householders  or  masters  of  families,  and  such 
others  as  they  should  admit  into  their  town  fellowship, 
should  govern  the  state  :  yet  "  only  in  civil  things ; "  God 
alone  was  respected  as  the  Ruler  of  conscience.  So  long  as 
the  number  of  the  inhabitants  was  small,  public  affairs  were 
transacted  by  the  monthly  town-meeting.  This  first  system 
had  its  decisive  influence  on  the  political  history  of  Rhode 
Island.  Had  the  territory  of  the  state  been  large,  the 
world  would  have  been  filled  with  wonder  and  admira- 
tion at  the  phenomena  of  its  history. 

The  most  touching  trait  in  the  founder  of  Rhode  Island 
was  his  conduct  towards  those  who  had  driven  him  out  of 
their  society.  He  says  of  them  truly:  "I  did  ever,  from 
my  soul,  honor  and  love  them,  even  when  their  judgment 
led  them  to  afflict  me."  In  his  writings,  he  inveighs  against 


302  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

the  spirit  of  intolerance,  the  doctrine  of  persecution,  and 
never  against  his  persecutors  or  the  colony  of  Massachu- 
setts. We  shall  presently  behold  him  requite  their  severity 
by  exposing  his  life  at  their  request  and  for  their  benefit. 
It  is  not  strange,  then,  if  "  many  hearts  were  touched  with 
relentings."  The  half-wise  Cotton  Mather  concedes  that 
many  judicious  persons  confessed  him  to  have  had  the  root 
of  the  matter  in  him ;  and  the  immediate  witnesses  of  his 
actions  declared  him,  from  "  the  whole  course  and  tenor  of 
his  life  and  conduct,  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  disinter- 
ested men  that  ever  lived,  a  most  pious  and  heavenly-minded 
soul." 

Rhode  Island  was  the  offspring  of  Massachusetts ;  but  her 
political  connections  were  long  influenced  by  the  circum- 
stances of  her  origin.  The  loss  of  the  few  emigrants  who 

resorted  to  the  new  state  was  not  sensibly  felt  in  the 
1G34.  parent  colony;  for  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts  was 

already  thronged  with  squadrons.  When  the  first 
difficulties  of  encountering  the  wilderness  had  been  sur- 
mounted, and  an  apprehension  had  arisen  of  evil  days  that 
were  to  befall  England,  the  stream  of  emigration  flowed 
With  a  full  current :  "  Godly  people  there  began  to  appre- 
hend a  special  hand  of  Providence  in  raising  this  plantation, 
and  their  hearts  were  generally  stirred  to  come  over."  The 
new  comers  were  so  many  that  there  was  no  room  for 

them  all  in  the  earlier  places  of  abode ;  and  Simon 
less.  Willard,  a  trader,  joining  with  Peter  Bulkeley,  a 

minister  from  St.  John's  College  in  Cambridge,  a 
man  of  wealth,  benevolence,  and  great  learning,  became 
chief  instruments  in  extending  the  frontier.  Under  their 
guidance,  at  the  fall  of  the  leaf  in  1635,  a  band  of  twelve 
families,  toiling  through  thickets  of  ragged  bushes,  and 
clambering  over  crossed  ti-ees,  made  their  way  along  Indian 
paths  to  the  green  meadows  of  Concord.  A  tract  of  land  six 
miles  square  was  purchased  for  the  planters  of  the  squaw 
sachem  and  a  chief  to  whom,  according  to  Indian  laws  of 
property,  it  belonged.  The  suffering  settlers  burrowed  for 
their  first  shelter  under  a  hillside.  The  cattle  sickened  on 
the  wild  fodder ;  sheep  and  swine  were  destroyed  by  wolves ; 


1636.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     303 

there  was  no  flesh  but  game.  The  long  rains  poured 
through  the  insufficient  roofs  of  their  smoky  cottages,  and 
troubled  even  the  time  for  sleep.  Yet  the  men  labored 
willingly,  for  they  had  their  wives  and  little  ones  about 
them.  The  forest  rung  with  their  psalms  ;  and  "  the  poor- 
est people  of  God  in  the  whole  world,"  unable  "  to  excel  in 
number,  strength,  or  riches,  they  resolved  to  strive  to  excel 
in  grace  and  in  holiness."  Such  was  the  infancy  of  a  Now 
England  village.  That  village  will  one  day  engage  the 
attention  of  the  world. 

Meantime,  the  fame  of  the  liberties  of  Massachusetts 
extended  widely:  the  good-natured  Earl  of  Warwick,  a 
friend  to  civil  liberty,  though  not  a  republican,  offered  his 
congratulations  on  its  prosperity ;  and  a  single  year  brought 
three  thousand  new  settlers  to  the  Puritan  colony.  Among 
these  was  the  fiery  Hugh  Peter,  who  had  been  pastor  of  a 
church  of  English  exiles  in  Rotterdam ;  a  republican  -of  great 
energy  and  popular  eloquence,  not  always  tempering  enter- 
prise with  judgment.  At  the  same  time  came  Hemy  Vane, 
the  younger,  "for  conscience'  sake."  "  He  liked  not  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church  of  England,  of  which  none  of  the  min- 
isters would  give  him  the  sacrament  standing."  "  Neither 
persuasions  of  the  bishops  nor  authority  of  his  parents  pre- 
vailed with  him ; "  and,  from  "  obedience  of  the  gospel," 
he  cheerfully  "  forsook  the  preferments  of  the  court  of 
Charles  for  the  ordinances  of  religion  in  their  purity  in 
New  England."  He  was  happy  in  the  possession  of  admi- 
rable powers ;  he  was  happy  in  the  eulogist  of  his  virtues  ; 
for  Milton,  ever  so  parsimonious  of  praise,  was  lavish  of 
encomiums  on  the  youthful  friend  of  religious  liberty ;  but 
he  was  still  more  happy  in  attaining  early  in  life  a  firmly  set- 
tled theory  of  morals,  and  in  possessing  an  energetic  will, 
which  made  his  conduct  conform  to  it.  "  If  he  were  not 
superior  to  Hampden,"  says  Clarendon,  "  he  was  inferior  to 
no  other  man ; "  "  his  whole  life  made  good  the  imagination 
that  there  was  in  him  something  extraordinary." 

The  freemen  of  Massachusetts,  pleased  that  a  young  man 
of  his  rank  and  ability  agreed  with  them  in  belief 
and  shared  their  exile,  in  1636  elected  him  their  gov-       lose. 


304  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

ernor.  The  choice  was  unwise ;  for  neither  the  age  nor  the 
experience  of  Vane  entitled  him  to  the  distinction. 
1636.  He  came  but  as  a  sojourner,  and  not  as  a  permanent 
resident ;  neither  was  he  imbued  with  the  genius  of 
the  place  ;  and  his  clear  mind,  unbiassed  by  previous  dis- 
cussions, and  fresh  from  the  public  business  of  England,  saw 
distinctly  what  the  colonists  did  not  wish  to  see,  the  really 
wide  difference  between  their  practice  under  their  charter 
and  the  meaning  of  that  instrument  on  the  principles  of 
English  jurisprudence. 

These  causes  of  discontent  could  not  remain  latent.  At 
first,  the  arrival  of  Vane  seemed  a  pledge  for  the  emigration 
of  men  of  the  highest  rank.  Several  English  peers,  espe- 
cially Lord  Say  and  Seal,  a  Presbyterian,  a  friend  to  the 
Puritans,  yet  with  but  dim  perceptions  of  the  true  nature 
of  civil  liberty,  and  Lord  Brooke,  a  man  of  charity  and 
meekness,  an  early  friend  to  tolerance,  had  begun  to  inquire 
into  the  character  of  the  rising  institutions,  and  to  nego- 
tiate for  such  changes  as  would  offer  them  inducements  for 
removing  to  America.  They  demanded  a  division  of  the 
general  court  into  two  branches,  that  of  assistants  and  of 
representatives,  —  a  change  which  was  acceptable  to  the 
people,  and  which,  from  domestic  reasons,  was  ultimately 
adopted ;  but  they  further  required  an  acknowledgment  of 
their  own  hereditary  right  to  a  seat  in  the  upper  house. 
The  fathers  of  Massachusetts  were  disposed  to  conciliate 
these  powerful  friends :  they  promised  them  the  honors 
of  magistracy,  would  have  readily  conferred  it  on  some  of 
them  for  life,  and  actually  began  to  make  appointments  on 
that  tenure ;  but,  as  for  the  establishment  of  hereditary 
dignity,  they  answered  by  the  hand  of  Cotton  :  "  Where 
God  blesseth  any  branch  of  any  noble  or  generous  family 
with  a  spirit  and  gifts  fit  for  government,  it  would  be  a 
taking  of  God's  name  in  vain  to  put  such  a  talent  under 
a  bushel,  and  a  sin  against  the  honor  of  magistracy  to 
neglect  such  in  our  public  elections.  But,  if  God  should 
not  delight  to  furnish  some  of  their  postei-ity  with  gifts  fit 
for  magistracy,  we  should  expose  them  rather  to  reproach 
and  prejudice,  and  the  commonwealth  with  them,  than 


1636.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     305 

exalt  them  to  honor,  if  we  should  call  them  forth,  when 
God  doth  not,  to  public  authority."  And  thus  the  proposi- 
tion for  establishing  hereditary  nobility  was  defeated.  The 
people,  moreover,  were  uneasy  at  the  permanent  concession 
of  office ;  Saltonstall,  "  that  much-honored  and  upright- 
hearted  servant  of  Christ,"  loudly  reproved  "the  sinful 
innovation,"  and  advocated  its  reform ;  nor  would  the 
freemen  be  quieted  till,  in  1639,  it  was  made  a  law  that 
those  who  were  appointed  magistrates  for  life  should  yet 
not  be  magistrates  except  in  those  years  in  which  they 
should  be  regularly  chosen  at  the  annual  election. 

The  institutions  of  Massachusetts  were  likewise  in  jeop- 
ardy from  religious  divisions.  The  minds  of  the  colonists 
were  excited  on  the  questions  which  the  nicest  subtlety 
only  could  have  devised,  and  which  none  but  those  experi- 
enced in  the  shades  of  theological  opinions  could  long 
comprehend.  For  it  goes  with  these  opinions  as  with 
colors,  of  which  the  artist,  who  works  in  mosaic,  easily  and 
regularly  discriminates  many  thousand  varieties  where  the 
common  eye  can  discern  a  difference  only  on  the  closest 
comparison.  In  Boston  and  its  environs,  the  most  pro- 
found questions  relating  to  human  existence  and  the  laws 
of  the  moral  world  were  discussed  with  passionate  zeal ;  the 
Holy  Spirit  was  claimed  as  the  inward  companion  of  man  ; 
while  many  persons,  in  their  zeal  to  distinguish  between 
abstract  truth  and  the  outward  forms  under  which  truth 
is  conveyed,  between  unchanging  principles  and  changing 
institutions,  were  in  perpetual  danger  of  making  shipwreck 
of  all  religious  faith,  and  hardly  paused  to  sound  their 
way  through  the  dim  and  perilous  paths  of  speculative 
theology. 

Amidst  the  arrogance  of  spiritual  pride,  the  vagaries  of 
undisciplined  imaginations,  and  the  extravagances  to  which 
the  intellectual  power  may  be  led  in  its  pursuit  of  ultimate 
principles,  two  distinct  parties  may  be  perceived.  The  first 
consisted  of  the  original  settlers,  the  framers  of  the  civil 
government  and  their  adherents ;  they  who  were  intent  on 
the  foundation  and  preservation  of  a  commonwealth,  and 
were  satisfied  with  the  established  order  of  society.  They 
VOL.  i.  20 


306  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

had  founded  their  government  on  the  basis  of  the  church,  and 
church  membership  could  be  obtained  only  by  an  exemplary 
life  and  the  favor  of  the  clergy.  They  dreaded  unlimited 
freedom  of  opinion  as  the  parent  of  ruinous  divisions.  "  The 
cracks  and  flaws  in  the  new  building  of  the  Reformation," 
thought  they,  "  portend  a  fall ;  "  they  desired  patriotism, 
union,  and  a  common  heart ;  they  were  earnest  to  confirm 
and  build  up  the  state,  the  child  of  their  cares  and  their 
sorrows.  They  were  reproached  with  being  "  priest-ridden 
magistrates,"  "  under  a  covenant  of  works." 

The  other  party  was  composed  of  individuals  who  had 
arrived  after  the  civil  government  and  religious  discipline 
of  the  colony  had  been  established.  Their  pride  consisted 
in  following  the  principles  of  the  Reformation  with  logical 
precision  to  all  their  consequences.  Their  eyes  were  not 
primarily  directed  to  the  institutions  of  Massachusetts,  but 
to  articles  of  religion.  They  had  come  to  the  wilderness 
for  freedom  of  religious  opinion ;  and  they  resisted  every 
form  of  despotism  over  the  mind.  To  them,  the  clergy  of 
Massachusetts  were  "  the  ushers  of  persecution,"  "  popish 
factors "  who  had  not  imbibed  the  true  principle  of  Chris- 
tian reform  ;  and  they  applied  to  the  influence  of  the  Puri- 
tan ministers  the  principle  which  Luther  and  Calvin  had 
employed  against  the  observances  and  pretensions  of  the 
Roman  church.  Every  political  and  every  philosophical 
opinion  assumed  in  those  days  a  theological  form :  standing 
on  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  alone,  they  derided 
the  formality  of  the  established  religion  ;  and  by  asserting 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells  in  every  believer,  that  the  reve- 
lation of  the  Spirit  is  superior  "to  the  ministry  of  the 
word,"  they  sustained  with  intense  fanaticism  the  para- 
mount authority  of  private  judgment. 

The  founder  of  this  party  was  Anne  Hutchinson,  a  woman 
of  such  admirable  understanding  "  and  profitable  and  sober 
carriage  "  that  her  enemies  could  never  speak  of  her  with- 
out acknowledging  her  eloquence  and  her  ability.  She  was 
encouraged  by  John  Wheelwright,  a  silenced  minister,  who 
had  married  her  husband's  sister,  and  by  Henry  Vane,  the 
governor  of  the  colony ;  while  a  majority  of  the  people  of 


1637.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    307 

Boston  sustained  her  in  her  rebellion  against  the  clergy. 
Scholars  and  men  of  learning,  members  of  the  magistracy 
and  of  the  general  court,  accepted  her  opinions.  The  public 
mind  seemed  hastening  towards  an  insurrection  against 
spiritual  authority ;  and  she  was  denounced  as  "  weakening 
the  hands  and  hearts  of  the  people  towards  the  ministers," 
as  being  "  like  Roger  "Williams,  or  worse." 

The  subject  acquired  high  political  importance.  Nearly 
all  the  clergy,  except  Cotton,  in  whose  house  Vane  was  an 
inmate,  clustered  together  in  defence  of  their  influ- 
ence, and  in  opposition  to  Yane ;  and  Wheelwright,  ^arch. 
who,  in  a  sermon  on  a  fast  day  appointed  as  a  means 
of  reconciliation  of  the  differences,  maintained  that  "  those 
under  a  covenant  of  grace  must  prepare  for  battle  and  come 
out  and  fight  with  spiritual  weapons  against  pagans,  and 
anti-christians,  and  those  that  runne  under  a  covenant  of 
works,"  in  spite  of  the  remonstrance  of  the  governor,  was 
censured  by  the  general  court  for  sedition.  At  the 
ensuing  choice  of  magistrates,  the  religious  divisions  May  n. 
controlled  the  elections.  Some  of  the  friends  of 
Wheelwright  had  threatened  an  appeal  to  England  ;  but  in 
the  colony  "  it  was  accounted  perjury  and  treason  to  speak 
of  appeals  to  the  king."  The  contest  appeared,  therefore, 
to  the  people  not  as  the  struggle  for  intellectual  freedom 
against  the  authority  of  the  clergy,  but  for  the  liberties  of 
Massachusetts  against  the  interference  of  the  English  gov- 
ernment. In  the  midst  of  such  high  excitement  that  even 
the  pious  Wilson  climbed  into  a  tree  to  harangue  the  people 
on  election  day,  Winthrop  and  his  friends,  the  fathers  and 
founders  of  the  colony,  recovered  power.  But  the  dispute 
infused  its  spirit  into  every  thing;  it  interfered  with  the 
levy  of  troops  for  the  Pequod  war  ;  it  influenced  the  respect 
shown  to  the  magistrates ;  the  distribution  of  town-lots ; 
the  assessment  of  rates ;  and  at  last  the  continued  existence 
of  the  two  opposing  parties  was  considered  inconsistent 
with  the  public  peace.  To  prevent  the  increase  of  a  faction 
esteemed  so  dangerous,  a  law,  somewhat  analogous  to  the 
alien  law  in  England,  and  to  the  European  policy  of  pass- 
ports, was  enacted  by  the  party  in  power ;  none  should  be 


308  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

\ 

received  within  the  jurisdiction  but  such  as  should  be 
allowed  by  some  of  the  magistrates.  The  dangers  which 
were  simultaneously  menaced  from  the  Episcopal  party  in 
the  mother  country  gave  to  the  measure  an  air  of  magnani- 
mous defiance ;  it  was  almost  a  proclamation  of  inde- 
pendence. As  an  act  of  intolerance,  it  found  in  Vane  an 
inflexible  opponent ;  and,  using  the  language  of  the  times, 
he  left  a  memorial  of  his  dissent.  "  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
and  such  as  are  confirmed  in  any  way  of  error,"  —  these 
are  the  remarkable  words  of  the  man,  who  soon  embarked 
for  England,  where  he  afterwards  pleaded  in  parliament 
for  the  liberties  of  Catholics  and  dissenters,  — "  all  such 
are  not  to  be  denyed  cohabitation,  but  are  to  be  pitied 
and  reformed.  Ishmael  shall  dwell  in  the  presence  of  his 
brethren." 

The  friends  of  Wheelwright  could  not  brook  his  censure ; 
but,  in  justifying  their  remonstrances,  they  employed  the 
language  of  fanaticism.  "  A  new  rule  of  practice  by  im- 
mediate revelations  "  was  now  to  be  the  guide  of  their  con- 
duct ;  not  that  they  expected  a  revelation  "  in  the  way  of 
a  miracle ; "  such  an  idea  Anne  Hutchinson  rejected  "  as  a 
delusion  ;  "  they  only  slighted  the  censures  of  the  ministers 
and  the  court,  and  avowed  their  determination  to  follow 
the  free  thought  of  their  own  minds.  But  individual  con- 
science is  often  the  dupe  of  interest,  and  often  but  a  more 

honorable  name  for  self-will.  The  government  feared, 
Aug.  or  pretended  to  fear,  a  disturbance  of  the  public 

peace.  A  synod  of  the  ministers  of  New  England 
was  therefore  assembled,  to  settle  the  true  faith.  Numer- 
ous opinions  were  harmoniously  condemned  ;  and  vague- 
ness of  language,  so  often  the  parent  of  furious  controversy, 
performed  the  office  of  a  peace-maker.  Now  that  Vane 
had  returned  to  England,  it  was  hardly  possible  to  find  any 
grounds  of  difference  between  the  flexible  Cotton  and  his 
equally  orthodox  opponents.  The  triumph  of  the  clergy 
being  complete,  the  civil  magistrates  proceeded  to  pass 
sentence  on  the  more  resolute  offenders.  Wheelwright, 
Anne  Hutchinson,  and  Aspinwall  were  exiled  from  the 
territory  of  Massachusetts,  as  "  unfit  for  the  society  "  of  its 


1641.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     309 

citizens ;  and  their  adherents,  who,  it  was  feared,  "  might, 
upon  some  revelation,  make  a  sudden  insurrection,"  and 
who  were  ready  to  seek  protection  by  an  appeal  from  the 
authority  of  the  colonial  government,  were  required  to 
deliver  up  their  arms. 

The  principles  of  Anne  Hutchinson  are  best  seen  in  the 
institutions  which  were  founded  by  her  associates.  We 
shall  hereafter  trace  the  career  of  Henry  Vane.  Wheel- 
wright and  his  friends  removed  to  the  banks  of  the  Piscat- 
aqua ;  and,  at  the  head  of  tide -waters  on  that  stream,  they 
founded  the  town  of  Exeter,  one  more  little  republic  in  the 
wilderness,  organized  on  the  principles  of  natural  justice  by 
the  voluntary  combination  of  the  inhabitants. 

The  larger  number  of  the  friends  of  Anne  Hutchinson, 
led  by  John  Clarke  and  William  Codclington,  proceeded  to 
the  south,  designing  to  make  a  plantation  on  Long  Island  or 
near  Delaware  Bay.     But  Roger  Williams  persuaded 
them  to  plant  in   his  vicinity.     In  March,   1638,  a   M^'7. 
social   compact,  signed  after  the  precedent  of  New 
Plymouth,  founded    their  government   upon   the  universal 
consent   of   the  inhabitants ;   the   forms   of   administration 
were  borrowed  from  the  Jews.     Coddington,  who  had  been 
one  of   the  magistrates  in  Massachusetts,  and  had  always 
testified  against  their  persecuting  spirit,  was  elected  judge 
in  the  new  Israel.      Before  the  month  was  at  an  end,  the 
influence  of  Roger  Williams  and  the  name  of  Henry  Vane 
prevailed  with    Miantonomoh,  the    chief    of    the    Narra- 
gansetts,  to  make   them  a  gift  of  the  beautiful  island  of 
Rhode  Island.      Under  this  grant,  they  began  at  once  to 
cluster  round  the  cove  on  the  north-east  part  of  the  island ; 
and,  as  they  grew  rapidly  in  numbers,  in  the  spring 
of  1639,  a  part  of  them  removed  to  Newport.     The  Mt[r324 
colony  rested  on  the  principle  of  intellectual  liberty  : 
philosophy  itself  could  not  have  placed  the  right  on  a  broader 
basis.     The  settlement  prospered ;  and  it  became  ne-     mi 
cessary  to  establish  a  constitution.    In  March,  1641,  it    iH;m-h 
was  therefore  ordered  by  the  whole  body  of  freemen, 
and  "  unanimously  agreed  upon,  that  the  government,  which 
this  body  politic  doth  attend  unto  in  this  island  and  the  ju- 
risdiction thereof,  in  favor  of  our  prince,  is  a  DEMOCKAOIE,  or 


310  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

popular  government ;  that  is  to  say,  it  is  in  the  power  of 
the  body  of  freemen  orderly  assembled,  or  major  part  of 
them,  to  make  or  constitute  just  lawes,  by  which  they  will 
be  regulated,  and  to  depute  from  among  themselves  such 
ministers  as  shall  see  them  faithfully  executed  between  man 
and  man."  "  It  was  further  ordered  that  none  be  accounted 
a  delinquent  for  doctrine ; "  the  law  for  "  liberty  of  con- 
science was  perpetuated."  The  little  community  was  held 
together  by  the  bonds  of  affection  and  freedom  of  opinion  : 
benevolence  was  their  rule ;  they  trusted  in  the  power  of 
love  to  win  the  victory ;  and  "  the  signet  for  the  state  " 
was  ordered  to  be  "  a  sheafe  of  arrows,"  with  "  the  motto 
AMOR  VINCET  OMNIA."  A  patent  from  England 
Sept1 9  was  necessary  for  their  security  ;  and  to  whom  could 
they  direct  their  letters  but  to  the  now  powerful 
Henry  Vane? 

Of  these  institutions  Anne  Hutchinson  did  not  long  enjoy 
the  protection.  Recovering  from  a  state  of  dejectedness,  she 
gloried  in  her  sufferings,  as  her  greatest  happiness ;  and, 
making  her  way  through  the  forest,  she  travelled  by  land 
to  the  settlement  of  Roger  Williams,  and  from  thence  joined 
her  friends  on  the  island,  sharing  with  them  the  hardships 
of  early  emigrants.  Her  mind  still  continued  active ;  young 
men  from  other  colonies  became  converts  to  her  opinions ; 
and  she  excited  such  admiration  that  to  the  leaders  in  Mas- 
sachusetts it  "gave  cause  of  suspicion  of  witchcraft."  A 
tinge  of  fanaticism  pervaded  her  family :  one  of  her  sons, 
and  Collins  her  son-in-law,  ventured  to  expostulate  with  the 
people  of  Boston  on  the  wrongs  of  their  mother.  Severe 
imprisonment  for  many  months  was  the  punishment  for 
their  boldness.  Rhode  Island  itself  seemed  no  longer  a  safe 
refuge ;  and  the  family  removed  beyond  New  Haven  into 
the  territory  of  the  Dutch.  There  Kieft,  the  violent  gov- 
ernor, provoked  an  insurrection  among  the  Indians  ; 
1(343.  in  1643  the  house  of  Anne  Hutchinson,  then  a  widow, 
was  attacked  and  set  on  fire ;  herself,  her  son-in-law, 
and  all  their  family,  save  one  child,  perished  by  the  weapons 
of  the  savages,  or  by  the  flames.  The  river  near  which  stood 
her  house  is  to  this  day  called  by  her  name. 


1636.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     311 

The  legislation  of  Massachusetts  may  be  reproved  for  its 
jealousy  more  than  for  its  cruelty,  and  Williams  and  Wheel- 
wright and  Aspinwall  suffered  not  more  from  their  banish- 
ment than  some  of  the  best  men  of  the  colony  encountered 
from  choice.  For  rumor  had  spread  accounts  of  the  fertility 
of  the  alluvial  land  along  the  borders  of  the  Connecticut ; 
and  the  banks  of  that  river  were  planted  with  Puritan  vil- 
lages, just  in  season  to  anticipate  the  rival  designs  of  the 
Dutch. 

The  valley  of  the  Connecticut  had  early  become       icso. 
an  object  of  desire  and  of  competition.     The  Earl  of 
Warwick  was  the  first  proprietary  of  the  soil,  under  a  grant 
from  the  council  for  New  England ;  and  it  was  next 
held  by  Lord   Say  and   Seal,   Lord   Brooke,   John  M^Vo. 
Hampden,   and  others,  as  his  assigns.     Before  any 
colony  could  be  established  with  their  sanction,  the 
people  of  New  Plymouth  built  a  trading-house  at       J^; 
Windsor,  and  conducted  with  the  natives  a  profit- 
able commerce  in  furs.     For  the  same  trade,  "  Dutch  in- 
truders"  from   Manhattan,  ascending   the  river,  raised  at 
Hartford  the  house  "  of  Good  Hope,"  and  struggled  to  se- 
cure  the  territory  to  themselves.     In    1635,  the   younger 
Wlnthrop,  the  future  benefactor  of  Connecticut,  one  of  those 
men  in  whom  the  elements  of  human  excellence  are  min- 
gled in  the  happiest  union,  returned  from  England 
with  a  commission  from  the  proprietaries  of  that  re- 
gion  to  erect  a  fort  at  the  mouth  of  the  stream,  a 
purpose  which  was  accomplished.     Other  settlements  were 
begun  by  emigrants  from  the  environs  of  Boston  at  Hart- 
ford and  Windsor  and  Weathersfield  ;  and,  in  the  last  days 
of  the  pleasantest  of  the  autumnal  months,  a  com- 
pany of  sixty,  among  whom  were  women  and  chil-  °o.'s!* 
dren,  removed  to  the  west.      But  their  journey  was  „ 

_*  .  Nov.  15. 

undertaken  too  late  in  the  season :  their  surterings 

were  severe,  and  were  greatly  exaggerated  by  malicious 

rumor  to  deter  others  from  following  them. 

Tn  the  opening  of  the  next  year,  "  the  people,  who       1636. 
had  resolved  to  transplant  themselves  and  their  es- 
tates unto  the  river  Connecticut,  judged  it  inconvenient  to 


312  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

go  away  without  any  frame  of  government ; "  and  at 
Man's.  tneir  desire,  on  the  third  of  March,  the  general  court 

of  Massachusetts  granted  a  temporary  commission  to 
eight  men,  two  from  each  of  the  companies  who  were  to 
plant  Springfield,  Windsor,  Hartford,  and  Weathersfield. 

At  the  budding  of  the  trees  and  the  springing  of  the 
May.  grass,  some  smaller  parties  made  their  way  to  the 

new  Hesperia  of  Puritanism.  In  June,  led  by  Thomas 
Hooker,  "  the  light  of  the  Western  Churches,"  the  principal 
body  of  about  one  hundred  persons,  many  of  them  accus- 
tomed to  affluence  and  the  ease  of  European  life,  began  their 
march.  Traversing  on  foot  the  pathless  forest,  they  drove 
before  them  numerous  herds  of  cattle;  advancing  hardly 
ten  miles  a  day  through  tangled  woods,  across  the  valleys, 
swamps,  and  numerous  streams,  and  over  the  intervening 

highlands  ;  subsisting  on  the  milk  of  the  kine,  which 
June,  browsed  on  the  fresh  leaves  and  early  shoots ;  having 

no  guide  through  the  pathless  wild  but  the  compass, 
and  no  pillow  for  their  nightly  rest  but  heaps  of  stones. 
How  did  the  hills  echo  with  the  unwonted  lowing  of  herds ! 
How  were  the  forests  enlivened  by  the  loud  piety  of  Hooker, 
famed  as  "  a  son  of  thunder  " !  Never  again  was  there  such 
a  pilgrimage  from  the  seaside  "  to  the  delightful  banks  "  of 
the  Connecticut.  The  emigrants  had  been  gathered  from 
among  the  most  valued  citizens,  the  earliest  settlers,  and  the 
oldest  churches  of  the  Bay.  Roger  Ludlow,  the  first  named 
in  the  commission  for  government,  unsurpassed  in  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  and  the  rights  of  mankind,  had  been  deputy 
governor  of  Massachusetts ;  John  Haynes  had  for  one  year 
been  its  governor ;  and  Hooker  had  no  rival  in  public  esti- 
mation but  Cotton,  whom  he  surpassed  in  force  of  charac- 
ter, in  liberality  of  spirit,  in  soundness  of  judgment,  and  in 
clemency.  Historians,  investigating  the  causes  of  events, 
have  endeavored  to  find  the  motives  of  this  settlement  in 
jealous  ambition.  Such  ingenuity  is  gratuitous.  The  Con- 
necticut was  supposed  to  be  the  best  channel  for  a  great 
internal  traffic  in  furs ;  and  its  meadows  were  already  pro- 
verbial for  the  richness  of  their  soil. 

The-  new  settlement  so  far  towards  the  west  was  envi- 


1636.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     313 

roned  by  perils.  The  Dutch  still  indulged  a  hope  of  dispos- 
sessing the  English,  and  the  natives  of  the  country  hated 
the  approach  of  all  Europeans.  No  part  of  New  England 
was  more  thickly  covered  with  aboriginal  inhabitants  than 
Connecticut.  The  Pequods,  who  were  settled  round  the 
Thames,  could  muster  at  least  seven  hundred  warriors ;  the 
effective  men  of  the  emigrants  were  fewer  than  two  hun- 
dred. The  danger  was  incessant ;  and  while  the  settlers, 
with  hardly  a  plough  or  a  yoke  of  oxen,  turned  the  wild 
fertility  of  nature  into  productiveness,  they  were  exposed 
to  the  incursions  of  an  enemy  whose  delight  was  carnage. 

In  1633,  some  of  the  Pequods  had  already  shown  a  hostile 
spirit,  and  had  murdered  the  captain  and  crew  of  a  small 
Massachusetts  vessel  trading  in  Connecticut  River.  "With 
some  appearance  of  justice,  they  pleaded  the  necessity  of 
self-defence ;  and  in  November,  1634,  their  messengers,  sent 
to  Boston  to  desire  the  alliance  of  the  white  men,  brought 
great  store  of  wampum  peag,  and  bundles  of  sticks  in  prom- 
ise of  so  many  beaver  and  otter  skins.  The  government  of 
Massachusetts  accepted  the  excuse  conditionally,  and  recon- 
ciled the  Pequods  with  their  hereditary  enemies,  the  Narra- 
gansetts.  No  longer  at  variance  with  a  powerful  neighbor, 
the  Pequods  did  not  deliver  up  the  murderers.  In 
July,  1636,  John  Oldham,  an  enterprising  trader,  re-  1636. 
turning  from  a  voyage  to  the  Connecticut  River,  was 
murdered  and  his  men  carried  off  by  the  Indians  of  Block 
Island.  To  punish  the  crime,  Massachusetts  sent  out  ninety 
men  under  the  command  of  Endecott.  Conforming  as  nearly 
as  they  could  to  their  sanguinary  orders,  they  ravaged  Block 
Island,  and  then,  re-enforced  by  volunteers  from  Connecticut, 
they  undertook  the  chastisement  of  the  Pequods.  That  war- 
like tribe,  far  from  being  overawed,  sought  the  alliance  of 
its  neighbors,  the  Narragansetts  and  the  Mohicans.  The 
union  and  general  rising  of  the  natives  against  the  colonists 
could  be  frustrated  by  none  but  Roger  Williams,  who  was 
the  first  to  give  information  of  the  impending  danger. 
Having  received  letters  from  Vane  and  the  council  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, requesting  his  utmost  and  speediest  endeavors 
to  prevent  the  league,  neither  storms  of  wind  nor  high  seas 


COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  IX. 

could  detain  him.  Shipping  himself  alone  in  a  poor  canoe, 
every  moment  at  the  hazard  of  his  life,  he  hastened  to  the 
house  of  the  sachem  of  the  ]S"arragansetts.  The  Pequod 
ambassadors,  reeking  with  blood  freshly  spilled,  were  al- 
ready there  ;  and  for  three  days  and  nights  the  business 
compelled  him  to  lodge  and  mix  with  them,  having  cause 
every  night  to  expect  their  knives  at  his  throat.  The  Nar- 
ragansetts  were  wavering  ;  but  Roger  Williams  succeeded 
in  dissolving  the  conspiracy.  It  was  the  most  intrepid 
achievement  in  the  war,  as  perilous  in  its  execution  as  it 
was  fortunate  in  its  issue.  The  Pequods  were  left  to  con- 
tend single-handed  against  the  English. 

Continued  injuries  and  murders  roused  Connecticut 


May7i-  to  acti°i:i  5  an(^  on  tne  ^rst  °^  May>  the  court  of  its 
three  infant  towns  decreed  immediate  war.  Uncas, 
sachem  of  the  Mohegans,  was  their  ally.  To  John  Mason 
the  staff  of  command  was  delivered  at  Hartford  by  the 
venerated  Hooker  ;  and  after  nearly  a  whole  night  spent, 
at  the  request  of  the  soldiers,  in  importunate  prayer  by  the 
very  learned  and  godly  Stone,  about  sixty  men,  one  third 
of  the  whole  colony,  aided  by  John  Underbill  and  twenty 
gallant  recruits,  whom  the  forethought  of  Vane  had  sent 
from  the  Bay  State,  sailed  past  the  Thames,  and,  designing 
to  reach  the  Pequod  fort  unobserved,  entered  a  harbor  near 
Wickford,  in  the  bay  of  the  Narragansetts.  The  next  day 
was  the  Lord's,  sacred  to  religion  and  rest.  Early  in  the 
week,  the  captains  of  the  expedition,  with  the  pomp  of 
a  military  escort,  repaired  to  the  court  of  Canonicus,  the 
patriarch  and  ruler  of  the  tribe  ;  and  the  younger  and  more 
fiery  Miantonomoh,  surrounded  by  two  hundred  of  his 
bravesit  warriors,  received  them  in  council.  "Your  de- 
sign," said  he,  "  is  good  ;  but  your  numbers  are  too  weak 
to  brave  the  Pequods,  who  have  mighty  chieftains,  and  are 
skilful  in  battle  ;  "  and,  after  doubtful  friendship,  he  de- 
serted the  desperate  enterprise. 

Nor  did  the  devoted  tribe  on  Mystic  River  distrust  their 
strength.  Their  bows  and  arrows  still  seemed  to  them  for- 
midable weapons  ;  ignorant  of  European  fortresses,  they 
viewed  their  frail  palisades  with  complacency  ;  and,  as  the 


1637.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    315 

English  boats  sailed  by  the  places  where  their  rude  works 
frowned  defiance,  it  was  rumored  among  them  that  their 
enemies  had  vanished  through  fear.  Hundreds  of  the  Pe- 
quods  spent  much  of  the  last  night  of  their  lives  in  rejoic- 
ings, at  a  time  when  the  sentinels  of  the  English 
were  within  hearing  of  their  songs.  On  the  twenty-  jta^e. 
sixth,  two  hours  before  day,  the  soldiers  of  Connect- 
icut put  themselves  in  motion ;  and,  as  the  light  of  morning 
began  to  dawn,  they  made  their  attack  on  the  principal  fort, 
which  stood  in  a  strong  position  at  the  summit  of  a  hill. 
Tin  colonists  were  fighting  for  the  security  of  their  homes ; 
if  defeated,  the  war-whoop  would  resound  near  their  cot- 
tages, and  their  wives  and  children  be  abandoned  to  the 
scalping-knife  and  the  tomahawk.  They  ascend  to  the 
attack ;  a  watch-dog  bays  an  alarm  at  their  approach ; 
the  Indians  awake,  rally,  and  resist,  as  well  as  bows  and 
arrows  can  resist  weapons  of  steel.  The  superiority  of 
number  was  with  them ;  and  fighting  closely,  hand  to 
hand,  victory  was  tardy.  "  We  must  burn  them !  "  shouted 
Mason,  and  cast  a  firebrand  to  the  windward  among  the 
light  mats  of  their  cabins.  Hardly  could  the  English  with- 
draw to  encompass  the  place,  before  the  encampment  was 
in  a  blaze.  Did  the  helpless  natives  climb  the  palisades,  the 
flames  assisted  the  marksmen  to  take  good  aim  at  them; 
did  they  attempt  a  sally,  they  were  cut  down  by  English 
broadswords.  About  six  hundred  Indians,  men,  women, 
and  children,  perished;  most  of  them  hi  the  hideous  con- 
flagration. In  little  more  than  an  hour,  the  work  of  de- 
struction was  finished,  and  two  only  of  the  English  had 
fallen. 

With  the  light  of  morning,  three  hundred  or  more  Pequod 
warriors  were  descried,  approaching  from  their  second  fort. 
They  had  anticipated  success ;  what  was  their  horror  as 
they  beheld  the  smoking  ruins!  They  stamped  on  the 
ground,  and  tore  their  hair ;  but  it  was  in  vain  to  attempt 
revenge ;  then  and  always,  to  the  close  of  the  war,  the  feeble 
resistance  of  the  natives  hardly  deserved,  says  Mason,  the 
name  of  fighting ;  their  defeat  was  certain,  and  unattended 
with  much  loss  to  the  English.  The  aborigines  were  never 


816  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  IX. 

formidable  in  battle,  till  they  became  supplied  with  weapons 
of  European  invention. 

A  portion  of  the  troops  hastened  homewards  to  protect 
the  settlements  from  any  sudden  attack ;  while  Mason, 
with  about  twenty  men,  marched  across  the  country  from 
the  neighborhood  of  New  London  to  the  English  fort  at 
Saybrook.  He  reached  the  river  at  sunset ;  but  Gardner, 
who  commanded  the  fort,  observed  his  approach ;  and  never 
did  a  Roman  consul,  returning  in  triumph,  ascend  the  Capi- 
tol with  more  joy  than  that  of  Mason  and  his  friends,  when 
they  found  themselves  received  as  victors,  and  "  nobly  enter- 
tained with  many  great  guns." 

In  a  few  days,  the  troops  from  Massachusetts  arrived, 
attended  by  Wilson ;  for  the  ministers  always  shared  every 
hardship  and  every  danger.  The  remnants  of  the  Pequods 
were  pursued  into  their  hiding-places ;  every  wigwam  was 
burned,  every  settlement  was  laid  waste.  Sassacus, 
1637.  their  sachem,  was  murdered  by  the  Mohawks,  to 
whom  he  had  fled  for  protection.  The  few  that 
survived,  about  two  hundred,  surrendering  in  despair,  were 
enslaved  by  the  English,  or  incorporated  among  the  Mo- 
hegans  and  the  Narragansetts.  "  Fifteen  of  the  boys  and 
two  women  "  were  exported  by  Massachusetts  to  Providence 
Isle ;  and  the  returning  ship  brought  back  "  some  cotton, 
tobacco,  and  negroes." 

The  vigor  and  courage  displayed  by  the  settlers 
on  the  Connecticut,  in  this  first  Indian  war  in  New 
England,  struck  terror  into  the  savages,  and  secured  a  long 
period  of  peace.  The  infant  was  safe  in  its  cradle,  the 
laborer  in  the  fields,  the  solitary  traveller  during  the  night- 
watches  in  the  forest ;  the  houses  needed  no  bolts,  the 
settlements  no  palisades.  The  constitution,  which  on  the 
fourteenth  of  January,  1639,  was  adopted  by  them,  was  of 
unexampled  liberality. 

In  two  successive  years,  a  general  court  had  been  held  in 
May ;  at  the  time  of  the  election,  the  committees  from  the 
towns  came  in  and  chose  their  magistrates,  installed  them, 
and  engaged  themselves  to  submit  to  their  government  and 
dispensation  of  justice.  "  The  foundation  of  authority,"  said 


1638.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    317 

Hooker,  in  an  election  sermon  preached  before  the 
general  court  in  May,  1638,  "  is  laid  in  the  free  con- 
sent  of  the  people,   to  whom  the  choice  of  public 
magistrates  belongs   by   God's   own   allowance."      "  They 
who  have  power  to  appoint  officers  and  magistrates,  it  is  in 
their  power,  also,  to  set  the  bounds  and  limitations  of  the 
power  and  place  into  which  they  call  them." 

"Winthrop  of  Massachusetts  held  it  to  be  an  error  in  the 
sister  colony  "  that  they  chose  divers  men  who,  though  other- 
wise holy  and  religious,  had  no  learning  or  judgment  which 
might  fit  them  for  affairs  of  government ;  by  occasion  whereof 
the  main  burden  for  managing  state  government  fell  upon 
some  one  of  their  ministers,  who,  though  they  were  men  of 
singular  wisdom  and  godliness,  yet,  stepping  out  of  their 
course,  their  actions  wanted  that  blessing  which  otherwise 
might  have  been  expected."  In  a  letter  therefore, 
written  to  Hooker,  in  the  midsummer  of  1638,  "  to  Aug. 
quench  these  sparks  of  contention,"  Winthrop  made 
remarks  on  the  boundary  between  the  states,  and  on  the 
rejected  articles  of  confederation  which  would  have  given 
to  the  commissioners  of  the  states  "  absolute  power ;  "  that 
is,  power  of  final  decision,  without  need  of  further  approval 
by  the  several  states.  He  further  "  expostulated  about  the 
unwarrantableness  and  unsafeness  of  referring  matter  of 
counsel  or  judicature  to  the  body  of  the  people,  quia  the 
best  part  is  always  the  least,  and  of  that  best  part  the  wiser 
part  is  always  the  lesser.  The  old  law  was,  Thou  shalt 
bring  the  matter  to  the  judge,  etc." 

In  reply  to  this,  Hooker  expressed  an  unwillingness  in 
the  matter  of  confederation  "  to  exceed  the  limits  of  that 
equity  which  is  to  be  looked  at  in  all  combinations  of  free 
states."  As  to  the  manner  of  conducting  their  separate 
governments,  he  wrote  unreservedly:  "That  in  the  matter 
which  is  referred  to  the  judge,  the  sentence  should  be  left 
to  his  discretion,  I  ever  looked  at  as  a  way  which  leads 
directly  to  tyranny,  and  so  to  confusion  ;  and  must  plainly 
profess,  if  it  was  in  my  liberty,  I  should  choose  neither  to 
live,  nor  leave  my  posterity,  under  such  a  government.  Let 
the  judge  do  according  to  the  sentence  of  the  law.  Seek 


318  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

the  law  at  his  mouth.  The  heathen  man  said,  by  the  candle 
light  of  common  sense  :  'the  law  is  not  subject  to  passion, 
and  therefore  ought  to  have  chief  rule  over  rulers  them- 
selves.' It's  also  a  truth  that  counsel  should  be  sought 
from  councillors ;  but  the  question  yet  is,  who  those  should 
be.  In  matters  of  greater  consequence,  which  concern  the 
common  good,  a  general  council,  chosen  by  all,  to  transact 
businesses  which  concern  all,  I  conceive,  under  favor,  most 
suitable  to  rule,  and  most  safe  for  relief  of  the  whole.  This 
was  the  practice  of  the  Jewish  church,  and  the  approved 
experience  of  the  best  ordered  states." 

From  this  seed  sprung  the  constitution  of  Con- 
Jan!9i4.  necticut,  first  in  the  series  of  written  American 
constitutions  framed  by  the  people  for  the  people. 
Reluctantly  leaving  Springfield  to  the  jurisdiction  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, on  the  fourteenth  of  January,  1639,  "  the  inhab- 
itants and  residents  of  Windsor,  Hartford,  and  Wethers- 
field,  associated  and  conjoined  to  be  as  one  public  state  or 
commonwealth."  The  supreme  power  was  intrusted  to  a 
general  court  composed  of  a  governor,  magistrates,  and 
deputies  from  the  several  towns,  all  freemen  of  the  common- 
wealth, and  all  chosen  by  ballot.  The  governor  was  further 
required  to  be  "  a  member  of  some  approved  congregation 
and "  to  have  been  "  formerly  of  the  magistracy ; "  nor 
might  the  same  person  be  chosen  to  that  office  oftencr  than 
once  in  two  years.  The  governor  and  the  magistrates  were 
chosen  by  a  majority  of  the  whole  body  of  freemen  ;  the  dep- 
uties of  the  towns,  by  all  who  had  been  admitted  inhabitants 
of  them,  and  had  taken  the  oath  of  fidelity.  Each  of  the 
three  towns  might  send  four  deputies  to  every  general  court, 
and  new  towns  might  send  so  many  deputies  as  the  court 
should  judge  to  be  in  a  reasonable  proportion  to  the  number 
of  freemen  in  the  said  towns  ;  so  that  the  representatives 
might  form  a  general  council,  chosen  by  all.  The  general 
court  alone  had  power  to  admit  a  freeman,  whose  qualifica- 
tions were  required  to  be  residence  within  the  jurisdiction 
and  preceding  admission  as  an  inhabitant  of  one  of  the 
towns ;  that  is,  according  to  a  later  interpretation,  a  house- 
holder. By  the  oath  of  allegiance,  as  in  Massachusetts,  every 


1639.     EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    319 

freeman  must  swear  to  be  true  and  faithful  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut;  and  of  no  other 
sovereign  was  there  a  mention.  The  governor  was  in  like 
manner  sworn  "  to  maintain  all  lawful  privileges  of  this 
commonwealth,"  and  to  give  effect  "  to  all  wholesome  laws 
that  are,  or  shall  be,  made  by  lawful  authority  here  estab- 
lished." The  oath  imposed  on  the  magistrates  bound  them 
"  to  administer  justice  according  to  the  laws  here  established, 
and  for  want  thereof  according  to  the  word  of  God."  The 
amendment  of  the  fundamental  orders  rested  with  the 
freemen  in  general  court  assembled.  All  power  was  to 
proceed  from  the  people.  From  the  beginning,  Connecticut 
was  constituted  a  republic,  and  was  in  fact  independent. 

More  than  two  centuries  have  elapsed  ;  the  world  has 
been  made  wiser  by  the  most  various  experience ;  political 
institutions  have  become  the  theme  on  which  the  most 
powerful  and  cultivated  minds  have  been  employed,  and  so 
many  constitutions  have  been  framed  or  reformed,  stifled  or 
subverted,  that  memory  may  despair  of  a  complete  cata- 
logue :  but  the  people  of  Connecticut  have  found  no  reason 
to  deviate  essentially  from  the  frame  of  government  estab- 
lished by  their  fathers.  Equal  laws  were  the  basis  of  their 
commonwealth  ;  and  therefore  its  foundations  were  lasting. 
These  unpretending  emigrants  invented  an  admirable  sys- 
tem ;  for  they  were  near  to  nature,  listened  willingly  to 
her  voice,  and  easily  copied  her  forms.  No  ancient  usages, 
no  hereditary  differences  of  rank,  no  established  interests, 
impeded  the  application  of  the  principles  of  justice.  Free- 
dom springs  spontaneously  into  life ;  the  artificial  distinctions 
of  society  require  centuries  to  ripen.  History  has  ever  cele- 
brated the  heroes  who  have  won  laurels  in  scenes  of  carnage. 
Has  it  no  place  for  the  founders  of  states ;  the  wise  legis- 
lators, who  struck  the  rock  in  the  wilderness,  so  that  the 
waters  of  liberty  gushed  forth  in  copious  and  perennial 
fountains?  They  who  judge  of  men  by  their  services  to 
the  human  race  Avill  never  cease  to  honor  the  memory 
of  Hooker,  and  will  join  with  it  that  of  Ludlow  and  still 
more  that  of  Haynes. 

In  equal  independence,  a  Puritan  colony  sprang  up  at 


320  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  IX. 

New  Haven,  under  the  guidance  of  John  Davenport  as  its 
pastor,  and  of  his  friend,  the  excellent  Theophilus  Eaton.  Its 
forms  were  austere,  unmixed  Calvinism  ;  but  the  spirit  of 
humanity  sheltered  itself  under  the  rough  exterior. 
Ap?\s  The  colonists  held  their  first  gathering  under  a 
branching  oak.  Spring  had  not  yet  revived  the 
verdure  of  nature ;  beneath  the  leafless  tree,  the  little  flock 
were  taught  by  Davenport  that,  like  the  Son  of  man,  they 
were  led  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted.  After  a  day 
of  fasting  and  prayer,  they  rested  their  first  frame  of  gov- 
ernment on  a  simple  plantation  covenant,  that  "  all  of  them 
would  be  ordered  by  the  rules  which  the  Scriptures  held 
forth  to  them."  A  title  to  lands  was  obtained  by  a  treaty 
with  the  natives,  whom  they  protected  against  the  Mo- 
hawks. When,  after  more  than  a  year,  the  free  planters 
of  the  colony  desired  a  more  perfect  form  of  government, 
the  followers  of  Him  who  was  laid  in  a  manger  held  their 
constituent  assembly  in  a  barn.  There,  by  the  influ- 
jime  4.  ence  °^  Davenport,  it  was  resolved  that  the  Script- 
ures are  the  perfect  rule  of  a  commonwealth ;  that 
the  purity  and  peace  of  the  ordinances  to  themselves  and 
their  posterity  were  the  great  end  of  civil  order ;  and  that 
church  members  only  should  be  free  burgesses.  A  com- 
mittee of  twelve  was  selected  to  choose  seven  men,  quali- 
fied for  the  foundation  work  of  organizing  the  government. 
Eaton,  Davenport,  and  five  others,  were  "  the  seven  pillars  " 
for  the  new  House  of  "Wisdom  in  the  wilderness.  In 
Aug.  23.  August,  1639,  the  seven  pillars  assembled,  possessing 
for  the  time  full  power.  Having  abrogated  every 
previous  executive  trust,  they  admitted  to  the  court  all 
church  members ;  the  character  of  civil  magistrates  was 
next  expounded  "  from  the  sacred  oracles ; "  and  the  elec- 
tion followed.  Then  Davenport,  in  the  words  of  Moses  to 
Israel  in  the  wilderness,  gave  a  charge  to  the  governor  to 
judge  righteously ;  "  the  cause  that  is  too  hard  for  you," 
such  was  part  of  the  minister's  text,  "  bring  it  unto  me, 
and  I  will  hear  it."  Annual  elections  were  ordered  ;  and 
God's  word  established  as  the  only  rule  in  public  affairs. 
Eaton,  one  of  the  most  opulent  of  the  comers  to  New  Eng- 


1649.    EXTENDED  COLONIZATION  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.     321 

land,  having  for  his  aim  not  so  much  to  die  well  as  to  live 
•well,  was  elected  governor  annually  for  near  twenty  years, 
till  his  death.  All  agree  that  he  conducted  public  affairs 
with  unfailing  discretion  and  equity;  in  private  life,  he 
joined  the  strict  stoicism  of  the  rigid  Puritans  with  a  visi- 
ble innate  benevolence  and  mildness. 

In  this  manner,  New  Haven  made  the  Bible  its  statute- 
book,  and  the  elect  its  freemen.  As  neighboring  towns  were 
planted,  each  constituted  itself  likewise  a  house  of  wisdom, 
resting  on  its  seven  pillars,  and  aspiring  to  be  illumined  by 
the  Eternal  Light.  The  colonists  prepared  for  the  second 
coming  of  Christ,  which  they  confidently  expected.  Mean- 
time, their  pleasant  villages  spread  along  the  Sound 
and  on  the  opposite  shore  of  Long  Island,  and  for 
years  they  nursed  the  hope  of  "speedily  planting 
Delaware." 


VOL.  i.  21 


322  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  X. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   UNITED    COLONIES    OF   NEW   ENGLAND. 

THE  English  government  was  not  indifferent  to  the  pro- 
gress of  the  colonies  of  New  England.  The  fate  of  the  first 
emigrants  had  been  watched  by  all  parties  with  benevolent 
curiosity ;  nor  was  there  any  inducement  to  oppress  the  few 
sufferers,  whom  the  hardships  of  their  condition  were  so  fast 
wasting  away.  The  adventurers  were  encouraged  by 
Nov!>24  a  proclamation,  which,  with  a  view  to  their  safety, 

prohibited  the  sale  of  fire-arms  to  the  savages. 
The  stern  discipline  exercised  by  the  government  at 
Salem  produced  an  early  harvest  of  enemies ;  resentment 
long  rankled  in  the  minds  of  some,  whom  Endecott  had 
perhaps  too  passionately  punished ;  and  when  they  returned 
to  England,  Mason  and  Gorges,  the  rivals  of  the  Massachu- 
setts company,  willingly  echoed  their  vindictive  complaints. 
A  petition  even  reached  King  Charles,  complaining  of  dis- 
traction and  disorder  in  the  plantations  ;  but  it  met  with  an 
unexpected  issue.  Massachusetts  was  ably  defended  by  Sal- 
tonstall,  Humphrey,  and  Cradock,  its  friends  in  England ; 
and  the  committee  of  the  privy  council  reported  in 
less.  favor  of  the  adventurers,  who  were  ordered  to  con- 
tinue their  undertakings  cheerfully,  for  the  king  did 
not  design  to  impose  on  the  people  of  Massachusetts  the 
ceremonies  which  they  had  emigrated  to  avoid.  The  coun- 
try, it  was  believed,  would  in  time  be  very  beneficial  to 
England. 

Revenge  did  not  slumber,  because  it  had  been 
once  defeated;  and  the  success  of  the  Puritans  in 
America  disposed  the  leaders  of  the  Episcopal  party  to 
listen  to  the  clamors  of  the  malignant.  Proof  was  pro- 
duced of  marriages  celebrated  by  civil  magistrates,  and  of 
the  system  of  colonial  church  discipline,  —  proceedings 


1634.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       323 

which  were  at  variance  with  the  laws  of  England.     "  The 
departure  of  so  many  of  THE   BEST,"  such  "numbers  of 
faithful  and  free-born  Englishmen  and  good  Christians,"  — 
a  more  ill-boding  sign  to  the  nation  than  the  portentous 
blaze  of  comets  and  the  impressions  in  the  air,  at  which 
astrologers  are  dismayed,  —  began  to  be  regarded  by 
the  archbishops  as  an  affair  of  state ;  and  in  February,  pebf  21. 
1G34,  ships   bound  with   passengers  for  New  Eng- 
land were   detained   in  the  Thames  by  an  order   of  the 
council. 

Still  more  menacing  was  the  appointment  of  an  arbitrary 
special  commission  for  the  colonies.  Hitherto  their  af- 
fairs had  been  confided  to  the  privy  council ;  in 
April,  William  Laud,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the  April, 
archbishop  of  York,  and  ten  of  the  highest  officers 
of  state,  were  invested  with  full  power  to  make  laws  and 
orders  for  the  government  of  English  colonies  planted  in 
foreign  parts,  to  appoint  judges  and  magistrates  and  estab- 
lish courts  for  civil  and  ecclesiastical  affairs,  to  regulate  the 
church,  to  impose  penalties  and  imprisonment  for  offences 
in  ecclesiastical  matters,  to  remove  governors  and  require 
an  account  of  their  government,  to  determine  all  appeals 
from  the  colonies,  and  to  revoke  all  charters  and  patents 
which  had  been  surreptitiously  obtained,  or  which  conceded 
liberties  prejudicial  to  the  royal  prerogative. 

Cradock,  who  had  been  governor  in  England  before  the 
removal  of  the  charter,  was  strictly  charged  to  deliver  in 
the  patent  of  Massachusetts ;  and  he  wrote  to  the  governor 
and  council  to  send  it  home.  Upon  receipt  of  his  letter, 
they  resolved  "  not  to  return  any  answer  or  excuse  at  that 
time."  In  September,  a  copy  of  the  commission  to  Arch- 
bishop Laud  and  his  associates  was  brought  to  Boston ;  and 
it  was  at  the  same  time  rumored  that  the  colonists  were  to 
be  compelled  by  force  to  accept  a  new  governor,  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  church  of  England,  and  the  laws  of  the  com- 
missioners. The  intelligence  awakened  "the  magistrates 
and  deputies  to  hasten  their  fortifications,  and  to  discover 
their  minds  each  to  other."  Poor  as  was  the  colony,  six 
hundred  pounds  were  raised  towards  fortifications  and  the 


324  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

work  upon  them  was  hastened.  In  the  beginning  of 
jln^ig.  1635,  all  the  ministers  assembled  at  Boston ;  and 
•they  unanimously  declared  against  the  reception  of 
a  general  governor.  "  "We  ought,"  said  the  fathers  in  Israel, 
"  to  defend  our  lawful  possessions,  if  we  are  able ;  if  not, 
to  avoid  and  protract." 

It  is  not  strange  that  Laud  and  his  associates  should  have 
esteemed  the  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  to  be  men  of 
refractory  humors ;  complaints  resounded  of  sects  and 
schisms;  of  parties  consenting  in  nothing  but  hostility  to 

the  church  of  England ;  of  designs  to  shake  off  the 
D&e.'  royal  jurisdiction.  Restraints  were  therefore  .placed 

upon  emigration  ;  no  one  above  the  rank  of  a  serving 
man  might  remove  to  the  colony  without  the  special  leave 
of  the  commissioners ;  and  persons  of  inferior  order  were 
required  to  take  the  oaths  of  supremacy  and  allegiance. 

Willingly  as  these  acts  were  performed  by  religious 
Aprfi     Bigotry,  they  were  promoted  by  another  cause.     A 

change  had  come  over  the  character  of  the  gre,at 
Plymouth  company  for  the  colonization  of  North  Virginia. 
Southampton  had  found  his  death  in  the  marshes  of  the 
Netherlands,  fighting  for  the  liberties  of  mankind.  Public 
spirit  had  died  out  in  the  body,  which  had  already  made 
grants  of  all  the  lands  from  the  Penobscot  to  Long  Island. 
Those  who  now  had  the  management  of  the  company  de- 
sired as  individuals  to  become  the  proprietaries  of  extensive 
territories,  even  at  the  dishonor  of  invalidating  all  their 
grants  as  a  corporation.  A  meeting  of  the  lords  was  duly 
convened  in  April ;  and  the  coast,  from  Acadia  to  beyond 
the  Hudson,  being  divided  into  shares,  was  distributed 
among  them  by  lots. 

Thus  far  all  went  smoothly ;  it  was  a  more  difficult  mat- 
ter to  gain  possession  of  their  prizes ;  the  independent  and 
inflexible  colony  of  Massachusetts  formed  an  obstacle,  which 
they  hoped  to  overcome  by  surrendering  their  general  patent 
for  New  England  to  the  king.  To  obtain  of  him  a  confirma- 
tion of  their  respective  grants,  and  to  use  the  whole  force 
of  his  power  against  the  charter  of  Massachusetts,  were 
their  avowed  objects.  To  this  end  they  set  forth,  "  that  the 


1635.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       325 

Massachusetts  patentees,  having  surreptitiously  obtained 
from  the  crown  a  confirmation  of  their  grant  of  the  soil,  had 
not  only  excluded  themselves  from  the  public  government 
of  the  corporation,  but  had  made  themselves  a  free  people, 
and  for  such  hold  themselves  at  present;  framing  unto 
themselves  new  conceits  of  religion  and  new  forms  of  ec- 
clesiastical and  temporal  government,  punishing  divers  that 
would  not  approve  thereof,  under  other  pretences  indeed, 
yet  for  no  other  cause  save  only  to  make  themselves  abso- 
lute masters  of  the  country,  and  uncontrollable  in  their  new 
laws." 

Now  was  the  season  of  greatest  peril  to  the  rising  liberties 
of  New  England.  The  privy  council  already  feared  the  con- 
sequences that  might  come  from  the  unbridled  spirits  of  the 
Americans ;  the  dislike  of  the  king  was  notorious ;  and,  at 
the  Trinity  term  in  the  court  of  king's  bench,  a  quo  warranto 
was  brought  against  the  company  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay. 
At  the  ensuing  Michaelmas,  several  of  its  members  who 
resided  in  England  made  their  appearance,  and  judgment 
was  pronounced  against  them  individually ;  the  rest  of  the 
patentees  stood  outlawed,  but  no  judgment  was  entered  up 
against  them.  The  unexpected  death  of  Mason,  the 
proprietary  of  New  Hampshire,  in  December,  1635,  ^; 
took  away  the  chief  mover  of  the  aggressions  on 
the  rights  of  the  adjoining  colony. 

In  July,  1637,  the  king,  professing  "  to  redress  the  mis- 
chiefs that  had  arisen  out  of  the  many  different  humours," 
took  the  government  of  New  England  into  his  own  hands, 
and  appointed  over  it  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  as  governor- 
general,  upon  whose  "  gravity,  moderation,  and  experience," 
some  hope  of  introducing  a  new  system  was  reposed.  But 
the  measure  was  feeble  and  ineffectual.  While  Gorges  in 
England  sided  with  the  adversaries  of  Massachusetts,  he 
avoided  all  direct  collision  with  its  people,  pretending 
underhand  by  his  letters  and  speeches  to  seek  their  wel- 
fare ;  he  never  left  England,  and  was  hardly  heard  of  ex- 
cept by  petitions  to  its  government.  Attempting  great 
matters  and  incurring  large  expenses,  he  lost  all.  The 
royal  grant  to  him  of  extended  territory  in  Maine,  of  which 


1635  to 
1637. 


326  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

mention  has  already  been  made,  was  never  of  any  avail  to 
him. 

Persecution  in  England  gave  strength   to   the  Puritan 

colony.    The  severe  censures  in  the  star-chamber,  the 

greatness  of  the  fines  which  avarice  rivalled  bigotry 

in  imposing,  the  rigorous  proceedings  with  regard 
to  ceremonies,  the  suspending  and  silencing  of  multitudes 
of  ministers,  continued ;  and  men  were  "  enforced  by  heaps 
to  desert  their  native  country.  Nothing  but  the  wide 
ocean  and  the  savage  deserts  of  America  could  hide  and 
shelter  them  from  the  fury  of  the  bishops."  The  pillory 
had  become  the  bloody  scene  of  human  agony  and  mutila- 
tion, as  an  ordinary  punishment ;  and  the  friends  of  Laud 
jested  on  the  sufferings  which  were  to  cure  the  obduracy  of 
fanatics.  "  The  very  genius  of  that  nation  of  people,"  said 
Wentworth,  "  leads  them  always  to  oppose,  both  civilly 
and  ecclesiastically,  all  that  ever  authority  ordains  for  them." 
They  were  provoked  to  the  indiscretion  of  a  complaint,  and 
then  involved  in  a  persecution.  They  were  imprisoned 
and  scourged ;  their  noses  were  slit ;  their  ears  were  cut 
off ;  their  cheeks  were  marked  with  a  red-hot  brand.  But 
the  lash  and  the  shears  and  the  glowing  iron  could  not 
destroy  principles  which  were  rooted  in  the  soul,  and  which 

danger  made  it  glorious  to  profess.  The  injured 
1637.  party  even  learned  to  despise  the  mercy  of  their 

oppressors.  Four  years  after  Prynne  had  been  pun- 
ished for  a  publication,  he  was  a  second  time  arraigned  for 
a  like  offence.  "  I  thought,"  said  Lord  Finch,  "  that  Prynne 
had  lost  his  ears  already ;  but,"  added  he,  looking  at  the 
prisoner,  "  there  is  something  left  yet ; "  and  an  officer  of 

the  court,  removing  the  hair,  displayed  the  mutilated 
June  so.  organs.  A  crowd  gathered  round  the  scaffold  where 

Prynne  and  Bastwick  and  Burton  were  to  suffer 
maim.  "  Christians,"  said  Prynne,  "  stand  fast ;  be  faith- 
ful to  God  and  your  country ;  or  you  bring  on  yourselves 
and  your  children  perpetual  slavery."  The  dungeon,  the 
pillory,  and  the  scaffold  were  stages  in  the  progress  of  civil 
liberty  towards  its  triumph. 

There  was  a  period  when  the  ministry  of  Charles  feared 


1638.      THE   UNITED   COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       327 

no  dangerous  resistance  in  England ;  and  the  attempts  to 
override  the  rights  of  parliament  by  monarchical  power 
were  accompanied  by  corresponding  movements  against 
New  England,  of  whose  colonists  a  correspondent  of  Laud 
reported,  "  that  they  aimed  not  at  new  discipline,  but  at 
sovereignty ;  that  it  was  accounted  treason  in  their  general 
court  to  speak  of  appeals  to  the  king." 

The  Puritans,  hemmed  in  by  dangers  on  every  side,  and 
at  that  time  having  no  immediate  prospect  of  success  at 
home,  desired  at  any  rate  to  escape  from  their  native  coun- 
try. "  To  restrain  the  transportation  to  the  colonies  of 
subjects  whose  principal  end  was  to  live  as  much  as  they 
could  without  the  reach  of  authority,"  one  proclama- 
tion succeeded  another.  In  May,  1638,  the  privy 
council  interfered  to  stay  a  squadron  of  eight  ships, 
which  were  in  the  Thames,  preparing  to  embark  for  New 
England.  It  has  been  said  that  Hampden  and  Cromwell 
were  on  board  this  fleet.  The  English  ministry  of  that 
day  might  willingly  have  exiled  Hampden,  who  was  at 
that  very  time  engaged  in  resisting  the  levy  of  ship-money ; 
no  original  authors,  except  royalists  writing  on  hearsay, 
allude  to  the  design  imputed  to  him ;  in  America,  there 
exists  no  evidence  of  his  expected  arrival ;  the  remark  of 
the  historian  Hutchinson  refers  to  the  well-known  schemes 
of  Lord  Say  and  Seal  and  Lord  Brooke.  There  came  over, 
during  this  summer,  twenty  ships,  and  at  least  three  thou- 
sand persons ;  and,  had  Hampden  designed  to  emigrate,  he 
whose  maxim  in  life  forbade  retreat,  and  whose  resolution 
was  as  fixed  as  it  was  calm,  possessed  energy  enough  to 
have  accomplished  his  purpose.  He  undoubtedly  had 
watched  with  deep  interest  the  progress  of  Massachusetts  ; 
The  "  Conclusions  "  had  early  attracted  his  attention  ;  and 
in  1631  he  had  taken  part  in  a  purchase  of  territory  on  the 
Narragansett ;  but  the  greatest  patriot  statesman  of  his 
times,  the  man  whom  Charles  I.  would  gladly  have  seen 
drawn  and  quartered,  whom  Clarendon  paints  as  possessing 
beyond  all  his  contemporaries  "  a  head  to  contrive,  a  tongue 
to  persuade,  and  a  hand  to  execute,"  and  whom  Baxter 
revered  as  able,  by  his  presence  and  conversation,  to  give  a 


328  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

new  charm  to  the  rest  of  the  saints  in  heaven,  never  em- 
barked for  America.  The  fleet  in  which  he  is  said  to  have 
taken  his  passage  was  delayed  but  a  few  days ;  on  petition 
of  the  owners  and  passengers,  King  Charles  removed  the 
restraint ;  the  ships  proceeded  on  their  intended  voyage ; 
and  the  company,  as  it  seems  without  diminution,  arrived 
safely  in  the  Bay  of  Massachusetts.  Had  Hampden  and 
Cromwell  been  of  the  party,  they  would  have  reached  New 
England. 

A  few  weeks  before  this  attempt  to  stay  emigra- 
ApriU.  tion,  the  lords  of  the  council  had  written  to  Win- 

throp,  recalling  to  mind  the  former  proceedings  by 

a  quo  warranto,  and  demanding  the  return  of  the  patent. 

In  case  of  refusal,  it  was  added,  the  king  would  assume  into 

his  own  hands  the  entire  management  of  the  plantation. 

But  "  David  in  exile  could  more  safely  expostulate  with 

Saul  for  the  vast  space  between  them."  The  colon- 
Sept.e.  ists,  without  desponding,  demanded  a  trial  before 

condemnation.  They  urged  that  the  recall  of  the 
patent  would  be  a  manifest  breach  of  faith,  pregnant  with 
evils  to  themselves  and  their  neighbors ;  that  it  would 
strengthen  the  plantations  of  the  French  and  the  Dutch; 
that  it  would  discourage  all  future  attempts  at  colonial 
enterprise ;  and,  finally,  "  if  the  patent  be  taken  from  us," 
such  was  their  remonstrance,  "  the  common  people  will  con- 
ceive that  his  majesty  hath  cast  them  off,  and  that  hereby 
they  are  freed  from  their  allegiance  and  subjection,  and 
therefore  will  be  ready  to  confederate  themselves  under  a 
new  government,  for  their  necessary  safety  and  subsistence, 
which  will  be  of  dangerous  example  unto  other  plantations, 
and  perilous  to  ourselves,  of  incurring  his  majesty's  dis- 
pleasure." 

What  the  better  class  of  public  men  in  England  thought 
of  Massachusetts,  we  know  from  D'Ewes,  who  wrote  :  "  All 
men  may  see,  whom  malice  blindeth  not  nor  impiety  trans- 
verseth,  that  the  very  finger  of  God  hath  hitherto  gone  with 
them  and  guided  them."  On  the  other  hand,  the  govern- 
ment of  Charles  were  of  the  opinion  that  "  all  corporations, 
as  is  found  by  experience  in  the  corporation  of  New  Eng- 


1642.      TrfE  UNITED  COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       329 

land,  are  refractory  to   monarchical   government   and   en- 
deavor to  poison  a  plantation  with  factious  spirits." 

Before  the  supplication  of  the  colony  could  find  its  way  to 
the  throne,  the  monarch  was  himself  involved  in  disasters. 
Anticipating  success  in  his  tyranny  in  England,  with  head- 
long indiscretion,  he  insisted  on  introducing  a  liturgy  into 
Scotland,  and  compelling  the  uncompromising  disciples  of 
Knox  to  listen  to  prayers  translated  from  the  Roman 
missal.     The  first  attempt  at  reading  the  new  service  j^6^. 
in  the  cathedral  of  Edinburgh  was  the  signal  for  that 
series  of  events  which  promised  to  restore  liberty  to  Eng- 
land and  give  peace  to  the  colonies.     The  movement  began, 
as  great  revolutions  almost   always  do,  from  the  ranks  of 
the  people.     "  What,  ye  villain ! "  shouted  the  old  women 
at  the  dean,  as  he  read  the  liturgy,  "  will  ye  say  mass  in 
my  lug  ?  "     "A  pape  !  a  pape  ! "  resounded  the  multitude, 
incensed  against  the  bishop ;  "  stane  him !  stane  him  ! "  and 
Jenny  Geddes  aimed  to  throw  a  three-legged  stool  at  his 
head,   that  might   have    cost    him  his    life.     The    tumult 
spreads ;  the  nobles  of  Scotland  take   advantage  of  the 
excitement  of  the  people  to  advance  their  ambition. 
The  national  covenant  is  published,  and  is  signed  by       less, 
the  Scottish  nation,  almost  without   distinction   of 
rank  or  sex ;  the  defences  of  despotism  are  broken  down  , 
the  flood  washes  away  every  vestige  of  ecclesiastical  oppres- 
sion.    Scotland  rises  in   arms  for  a  holy  war,  and  enlists 
religious  enthusiasm  under  its  banner  in  its  contest  against 
a  despot,  who  has  neither  a  regular  treasury  nor  an  army 
nor  the  confidence  of  his  people.     The  wisest  of  his  sub- 
jects esteem  the  insurgents  as  their  friends  and  allies. 
There  is  now  no  time  to  oppress  New  England ;  the       1639. 
throne  itself  totters :  there  is  no  need  to  forbid  emi- 
gration ;  England  is  at  once  become  the  theatre  of  wonder- 
ful events,  and  fiery  spirits,  who  had  fled  for  a  refuge  to 
the  colonies,  rush  back  to  share  in  the  open  struggle 
for  liberty.     In  the  following  years,  few  passengers 
came  over ;  the  reformation  of  church  and  state,  the 
attainder  of  Strafford,  the  impeachment  of  Laud,  caused  all 
men  to  stay  in  England  in  expectation  of  a  new  world. 


330  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

Yet  a  nation  was  already  planted  in  New  England ; 
a  commonwealth  was  ripened ;  the  contests  in  which  the 
unfortunate  Charles  became  engaged,  and  the  republican 
revolution  that  followed,  left  the  colonists,  for  the  space  of 
twenty  years,  nearly  unmolested  in  the  enjoyment  of  vir- 
tual independence.  The  change  which  their  industry  had 
wrought  in  the  wilderness  was  the  admiration  of  their  times. 
The  wigwams  and  hovels  in  which  the  English  had  at  first 
found  shelter  were  replaced  by  well-built  houses.  The 
number  of  emigrants  who  had  arrived  in  New  England 
before  the  assembling  of  the  Long  Parliament  is  esteemed 
to  have  been  twenty-one  thousand  two  hundred.  Two  hun- 
dred and  ninety-eight  ships  had  borne  them  across  the 
Atlantic ;  and  the  cost  of  the  plantations  had  been  almost 
a  million  of  dollars,  a  great  expenditure  and  a  great  emi- 
gration for  that  age.  In  a  little  more  than  ten  years,  fifty 
towns  and  villages  had  been  planted  ;  between  thirty  and 
forty  churches  built ;  and  strangers,  as  they  gazed,  could 
not  but  acknowledge  God's  blessing  on  the  endeavors  of  the 
planters.  A  public  school,  for  which  on  the  eighth  of  Sep- 
tember, 1636,  the  general  court  made  provision,  was,  in  the 
next  year,  established  at  Cambridge ;  and  when,  in  1638, 
John  Harvard,  a  non-conformist  clergyman,  a  church  mem- 
ber and  freeman  of  Charlestown,  esteemed  for  godliness  and 
the  love  of  learning,  bequeathed  to  it  his  library  and  half 
his  fortune,  it  was  named  HARVARD  COLLEGE.  "  To  com- 
plete the  colony  in  church  and  commonwealth  work,"  Jose 
Glover,  a  worthy  minister,  "  able  in  estate,"  and  of  a  liberal 
spirit,  in  that  same  year  embarked  for  Boston  with  fonts  of 
letters  for  printing,  and  a  printer.  He  died  on  the  passage ; 
but,  in  1639,  Stephen  Daye,  the  printer,  printed  the  Free- 
man's Oath,  and  an  Almanac  calculated  for  New 
1640.  England ;  and,  in  1640,  "  for  the  edification  and  com- 
fort of  the  saints,"  the  Psalms,  faithfully  but  rudely 
translated  in  metre  from  the  Hebrew  by  Thomas  Welde 
and  John  Eliot,  ministers  of  Roxbury,  assisted  by  Richard 
Mather,  minister  of  Dorchester,  were  published  in  a  volume 
of  three  hundred  octavo  pages,  the  first  book  printed  in 
America,  north  of  the  city  of  Mexico. 


1641.      THE   UNITED   COLONIES   OF  NEW   ENGLAND.       331 

In  temporal  affairs,  plenty  prevailed  throughout  the  set- 
tlements, and  affluence  came  in  the  train  of  industry.  The 
natural  exports  of  the  country  were  furs  and  lumber ;  grain 
was  carried  to  the  "West  Indies ;  fish  also  was  a  staple.  The 
art  of  ship-building  was  introduced  with  the  first  emigrants 
to  Salem ;  but  "  Winthrop  had  with  him  William  Stephens, 
a  shipwright,  who  had  been  preparing  to  go  for  Spain,  and 
who  would  have  been  as  a  precious  jewel  to  any  state  that 
obtained  him."  He  had  built  in  England  many  ships  of 
great  burden,  one  even  of  six  hundred  tons,  and  he  was  "  so 
able  a  man  that  there  was  hardly  such  another  to  be  found 
in  the  kingdom."  In  New  England  he  lived  with  great 
content,  where,  from  the  time  of  his  arrival,  ship-building 
was  carried  on  with  surpassing  skill,  so  that  vessels  were 
soon  constructed  of  four  hundred  tons.  So  long  as  the 
ports  were  thronged  with  new  comers,  the  older  settlers 
found  full  employment  in  supplying  their  wants.  But  now 
"  men  began  to  look  about  them,  and  fell  to  a  manufacture 
of  cotton,  whereof  they  had  store  from  Barbadoes."  In 
view  of  the  exigency,  "  the  general  court  made  order  for 
the  manufacture  of  woollen  and  linen  cloth." 

The  Long  Parliament,  which  met  in  1641,  con-  ie«. 
tained  among  its  members  many  sincere  favorers  of 
the  Puritan  plantations.  But  the  English  in  America,  with 
wise  circumspection,  feared  to  endanger  their  legislative  in- 
dependence. "  Upon  the  great  liberty  which  the  king  had 
left  the  parliament  in  England,"  says  Winthrop,  "  some  of 
our  friends  there  wrote  to  us  advice  to  solicit  for  us  in  the 
parliament,  giving  us  hope  that  we  might  obtain  much.  But, 
consulting  about  it,  we  declined  the  motion  for  this  consid- 
eration, that,  if  we  should  put  ourselves  under  the  protection 
of  the  parliament,  we  must  then  be  subject  to  all  such  laws 
as  they  should  make,  or,  at  least,  such  as  they  might  impose 
upon  us.  It  might  prove  very  prejudicial  to  us."  When  the 
letters  arrived,  inviting  the  colonial  churches  to  send  their 
deputies  to  the  Westminster  assembly  of  divines,  the 'same 
sagacity  led  them  to  neglect  the  summons.  Especially 
Hooker,  of  Hartford,  "  liked  not  the  business,"  and  deemed 
it  his  duty  rather  to  stay  in  quiet  and  obscurity  with  his 


332  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

people  in  Connecticut,  than  to  go  three  thousand  miles  to 
plead  for  Independency  with  Presbyterians  in  England. 
Yet  such  commercial  advantages  were  desired  as  might  be 
obtained  without  a  surrender  of  chartered  rights.  In  1641, 
the  general  court  "sent  three  chosen  men  into  England  to 
congratulate  the  happy  success  there,  and  to  be  ready  to 
make  use  of  any  opportunity  God  should  offer  for  the  good 
of  the  country  here,  as  also  to  give  any  advice,  as  it  should 
be  required,  for  the  settling  of  the  right  form  of  church  dis- 
cipline there."  Of  these  agents,  Hugh  Peter  was  one. 

The  security  enjoyed  by  New  England  presented  the  long 
desired  opportunity  of  establishing  a  "  body  of  liberties  "  as 
a  written  constitution  of  government.  In  the  absence  of  a 
code  of  laws,  the  people  had  for  several  years  continued  to 
be  uneasy  at  the  extent  of  power  that  rested  in  the  discre- 
tion of  the  magistrates.  On  the  other  hand,  most  of  the 
magistrates,  and  some  of  the  elders,  thinking  that  the  fittest 
laws  would  arise  upon  occasions,  and  gain  validity  as  cus- 
toms, and  moreover  fearing  that  their  usages,  if  established 
as  regular  statutes,  might  be  censured  by  their  enemies  as 
repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  "had  not  been  very 
forward  in  this  matter."  Now  that  some  of  the  causes  of 
apprehension  existed  no  longer,  the  great  work  of  con- 
1641.  stitutional  legislation  was  resumed  ;  and  in  December, 
1641,  a  session  of  three  weeks  was  employed  in  con- 
sidering a  system  which  had  been  prepared  chiefly  by 
Nathaniel  Ward,  of  Ipswich.  He  had  been  formerly  a  stu- 
dent and  practiser  in  the  courts  of  common  law  in  England, 
but  became  a  non-conforming  minister ;  so  that  he  was  com- 
petent to  combine  the  humane  principles  of  the  common  law 
with  those  of  natural  right  and  equality,  as  deduced  from 
the  Bible.  After  mature  deliberation,  his  "model,"  which 
for  its  liberality  and  comprehensiveness  may  vie  with  any 
similar  record  from  the  days  of  Magna  Charta,  was  adopted 
as  "  the  body  of  liberties  "  of  the  Massachusetts  colony. 

All  the  general  officers  of  the  jurisdiction,  including 
governor,  deputy  governor,  treasurer,  assistants,  military 
commander,  and  admiral,  if  there  should  be  a  naval  force, 
were  to  be  chosen  annually  by  the  freemen  of  the  planta 


1641.      THE    UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       333 

tion,  and  paid  from  the  common  treasury.  The  freemen 
in  the  several  towns  were  to  choose  deputies  from  among 
themselves ;  or,  "  to  the  end  the  ablest  gifted  men  might  be 
made  use  of  in  so  weighty  a  work,"  they  might  select  thorn 
elsewhere  as  they  judged  fittest,  who  were  to  be  paid  from 
the  treasury  of  the  respective  towns,  and  to  serve  "  at  the 
most  but  one  year ;  that  the  country  may  have  an  annual 
liberty  to  do  in  that  case  what  is  most  behooveful  for  the 
best  welfare  thereof."  No  general  assembly  could  be  dis- 
solved or  adjourned  without  the  consent  of  the  major  part 
thereof.  The  freemen  of  every  town  had  power  to  make 
such  by-laws  and  constitutions  as  might  concern  the  welfare 
of  the  town,  provided  they  be  not  of  a  criminal  nature,  nor 
repugnant  to  the  public  laws  of  the  country ;  and  that 
their  penalties  exceed  not  twenty  shillings  for  one  1641. 
offence.  They  also  had  power  to  choose  yearly  se- 
lectmen "  to  order  the  prudential  occasions  of  the  town 
according  to  instructions  to  be  given  them  in  writing." 

Life,  honor,  and  personal  liberty  and  estate  were  placed 
under  the  perpetual  protection  of  law.  To  every  person, 
whether  inhabitant  or  foreigner,  was  promised  equal  justice 
without  partiality  or  delay.  Every  man,  whether  inhabi- 
tant or  foreigner,  free  or  not  free,  that  is,  whether  admitted 
as  a  member  of  the  general  court  of  the  freemen  under 
the  charter  or  not,  had  the  liberty  to  come  to  any  court, 
council,  or  town-meeting,  and  there  to  move  any  question 
or  present  any  petition,  either  by  speech  or  writing.  Every 
officer  exercising  judicial  authority  was  annually  elected  ; 
the  assistants  by  the  freemen  of  the  whole  plantation ;  the 
associates  to  assist  the  assistants  in  any  inferior  court,  by 
the  towns  belonging  to  that  court ;  and  all  jurors,  by  the 
freemen  of  the  town  where  they  dwelt.  Judicial  proceed- 
ings were  simplified;  by  mutual  consent  of  plaintiff  and 
defendant,  actions  might  be  tried,  at  their  option,  by  the 
bench  or  by  a  jury;  and  in  criminal  trials  the  like  choice 
was  granted  to  the  accused. 

Every  incident  of  feudal  tenure  that  would  have  been  a 
restraint  on  the  possession  and  transmission  of  real  estate 
was  utterly  forbidden ;  and  all  lands  and  heritages  were 


334  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

declared  free  and  alienable;  so  that  the  land  of  a  child 
under  age,  or  an  idiot,  might,  with  the  consent  of  a  general 
court,  be  conveyed  away.  The  charter  had  indeed  reserved 
to  the  king,  by  way  of  rent,  one  fifth  of  the  gold  and  silver 
that  might  be  mined  ;  but  this  was  a  mere  theoretical  feud, 
resolving  itself  into  fealty  alone.  In  Massachusetts,  all  the 
land  was  allodial.  All  persons  of  the  age  of  twenty -one 
years,  even  the  excommunicate  or  condemned,  had  full 
power  to  alienate  their  lands  and  estates,  and  to  make  their 
wills  and  testaments.  Children  inherited  equally  as  co- 
partners the  property  of  intestate  parents,  whether  real  or 
personal,  except  that  to  the  first-born  son,  where  there  was 
a  son,  a  double  portion  was  assigned,  unless  the  general 
court  should  judge  otherwise.  No  man  could  be  compelled 
to  go  out  of  the  limits  of  the  plantation  upon  any  offensive 
war.  To  every  man  within  the  jurisdiction,  free  liberty 
was  assured  to  remove  himself  and  his  family  at  their  pleas- 
ure. The  grant  of  monopolies  was  prohibited,  except  of  new 
inventions  profitable  to  the  country,  and  that  for  a 
1641.  short  time.  Every  married  woman  was  protected 
against  bodily  correction?  or  stripes  by  her  husband, 
and  had  redress,  if  at  his  death  he  should  not  leave  her  a 
competent  portion  of  his  estate.  Of  other  nations  professing 
the  true  Christian  religion,  all  fugitives  from  the  tyranny  or 
oppression  of  their  persecutors,  or  from  famine  or  wars, 
were  ordered  to  be  entertained  according  to  that  power  and 
prudence  that  God  should  give ;  so  that  the  welcome  of  the 
commonwealth  was  as  wide  as  sorrow.  On  slavery  this 
was  the  rule :  "  There  shall  never  be  any  bond  slaverie, 
villinage,  or  captivitie  amongst  us,  unles  it  be  lawfull 
captives  taken  in  just  warres,  and  such  strangers  as  will- 
ingly selle  themselves  or  are  sold  to  us.  And  these  shall 
have  all  the  liberties  and  Christian  usages  which  the  law  of 
God  established  in  Israel  concerning  such  persons  doeth 
morally  require.  This  exempts  none  from  servitude  who 
shall  be  judged  thereto  by  authoritie."  "  If  any  man 
stealeth  a  man  or  mankinde,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to 
death." 

The  severity  of  the  Levitical  law  against  witchcraft,  bias- 


1641.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       335 

phemy,  and  sins  against  nature,  was  retained;  otherwise, 
death  was  the  punishment  only  for  murder,  adultery,  man- 
stealing,  and  false  witness  wittingly  to  take  away  any 
man's  life.  In  the  following  year,  rape  was  also  made  a 
capital  crime. 

AVith  regard  to  the  concerns  of  religion,  all  the  people  of 
God  who  were  orthodox  in  judgment  and  not  scandalous  in 
life  had  full  liberty  to  gather  themselves  into  a  church 
estate  ;  to  exercise  all  the  ordinances  of  God  ;  and  from 
time  to  time  to  elect  and  ordain  all  their  officers,  provided 
they  be  able,  pious,  and  orthodox.  For  the  preventing  and 
removing  of  error,  ministers  and  elders  of  near  adjoining 
churches  might  hold  public  Christian  conference,  provided 
that  nothing  be  imposed  by  way  of  authority  by  one  or 
more  churches  upon  another,  but  only  by  way  of  brotherly 
consultations. 

Such  were  the  most  important  of  the  liberties  and  laws, 
established  at  the  end  of  1641,  for  the  government  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. Embracing  the  freedom  of  the  commonwealth, 
of  municipalities,  of  persons,  and  of  churches  according  to 
the  principles  of  Congregationalism,  "  the  model "  exhibits 
the  truest  picture  of  the  principles,  character,  and  inten- 
tions of  that  people,  and  the  best  evidence  of  its  vigor  and 
self-dependence. 

In  its  main  features  it  was  the  embodiment  of  the  customs 
of  the  colony.      The  public  teaching  of  all  children,  the 
train-bands  and  the  training-field,  the  town-meeting 
and  the  meeting  of  all  the  inhabitants  for  public  wor-       tea. 
ship,  —  these  essential  elements  of  early  New  Eng- 
land public  life  grew  up  before  their  establishment  by  a 
superior  authority,  and,  as  it  were,  created  the  laws  for 
their  perpetuation. 

Do  we  seek  to  trace  the  New  England  town  to  its  origin  ? 
The  vital  principle  of  Teutonic  liberty  lies  in  the  immemo- 
rial usage  of  the  meeting  of  all  the  people  with  the  equal 
right  of  each  qualified  inhabitant  to  give  counsel  and  to 
vote  on  public  affairs.  The  usage  still  exists,  nearly  in  its 
pristine  purity,  in  some  of  the  cantons  of  Switzerland;  it 
has  left  in  the  Teutonic  race  a  more  profound  sense  of  the 


336  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  X. 

need  of  local  self-government  than  exists  elsewhere  on. the 
continent  of  Europe ;  in  England,  it  is  the  formative  idea 
of  its  parliament  and  of  its  hundred,  and  in  some  narrow 
measure  still  survives  in  the  parish.  It  was  saved  in  many 
English  towns  by  special  agreement  with  their  rulers,  though 
these  agreements  were  warred  upon  and  essentially  changed 
by  later  and  more  arbitrary  kings.  This  seminal  principle  of 
English  liberty  scattered  itself  and  took  root  wherever  Eng- 
lishmen trod  the  soil  of  America.  The  first  ordinance  for  the 
constitution  of  Virginia  enumerated  the  divisions  of  towns, 
hundreds,  and  plantations  ;  but  there  the  system  was  imper- 
fectly developed  from  the  scattered  mode  of  life  of  the  planters 
and  the  introduction  of  the  English  system  of  parishes.  In 
New  England,  the  precious  seed  fell  on  the  best  ground  for 
its  quickening.  Each  company  of  settlers  as  it  arrived,  or 
as  it  divided  from  earlier  companies,  formed  a  town  by 
themselves,  which  at  once  began  as  by  right  with  taking 
care  of  its  own  concerns.  All  the  electors  met  annually, 
and  more  often  if  required.  They  might  at  any  time  be 
called  together  to  treat  of  any  subject  that  was  of  interest 
to  them,  even  if  it  were  but  to  express  an  opinion.  When 
business  became  too  complicated  to  be  executed  in  the 
public  assembly,  the  annual  meeting  voted  what  should  be 
done  in  the  year,  and  selected  men  to  carry  out  their  votes. 
When  the  annual  gathering  of  all  the  freemen  of  the  cor- 
poration gave  way  to  the  representative  system,  each  town 
that  had  as  many  as  ten  freemen  might  send  at  least  one 
deputy  to  what  was  still  called  the  general  court.  Thus  in 
Massachusetts,  and  it  was  substantially  so  in  all  the  New 
England  states,  the  commonwealth  was  made  up  of  living, 
integral  organizations,  in  which  the  people  were  trained, 
from  the  beginning,  to  feel  themselves  members  of  the  state 
and  to  take  their  share  in  public  life. 

In  these  early  days,  there  fell  under  the  control  of 

1641  i 

the  several  towns  two  subjects,  which  are  now  re- 
moved from  them.  The  minister,  without  whom  the  exist- 
ence of  a  town  could  not  be  conceived  of,  was  chosen  in 
open  town-meeting,  and  received  his  support  according  to 
the  contract  that  might  be  made  between  him  and  the 


1642.      THE   UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       337 

people.     This  regulation  continued  in  usage  in  some  of  the 
interior  precincts  for  nearly  two  centuries. 

By  the  charter  all  the  land  of  the  commonwealth  was 
granted  to  the  freemen  of  the  corporation  ;  but  they  never 
laid  claim  to  it  for  themselves.  They  sometimes  showed 
their  gratitude  to  benefactors  by  voting  to  them  lands ;  but, 
as  the  rule,  the  land  within  the  limits  of  a  town  was 
granted  by  the  commonwealth  to  the  individuals  who  were 
to  plant  the  town;  not  in  perpetuity,  nor  in  equal  parts, 
but  to  be  distributed  among  the  inhabitants  according  to 
their  previous  agreements,  or  to  their  wants  and  just  ex- 
pectations as  judged  of  by  the  towns  themselves.  Each 
town  made  its  own  rules  for  the  division  of  them.  It  was 
usual  to  reserve  a  large  part  of  the  town's  domain  for  such 
persons  as  from  time  to  time  should  be  received  as  inhabi- 
tants ;  and,  in  the  mean  while,  rights  to  wood,  timber,  and 
herbage,  in  the  undivided  lands,  attached  to  all  household- 
ers. A  permanent  community  of  property  in  land  was  never 
designed  or  attempted. 

Soon  after  the  promulgation  of  its  "  liberties,"  the  terri- 
tory of  Massachusetts  was  extended  to  the  Piscataqua,  for 
which  the  strict  interpretation  of  its  charter  offered  an 
excuse.  The  people  of  New  Hampshire  had  long  been  ha- 
rassed by  vexatious  proprietary  claims ;  dreading  the  perils 
of  anarchy,  they  provided  a  remedy  for  the  evils  of  a  dis- 
puted jurisdiction  by  the  immediate  exercise  of  their 
natural  rights ;  and,  on  the  fourteenth  of  April,  1642,  Ap^421'4- 
by  their  own  voluntary  act,  they  were  annexed  to 
their  powerful  neighbor,  not  as  a  province,  but  on  equal 
terms,  as  an  integral  portion  of  the  state.  The  change  was 
effected  with  great  deliberation.  The  banks  of  the  Piscata- 
qua had  not  been  peopled  by  Puritans  ;  and  the  system  of 
Massachusetts  could  not  properly  be  applied  to  the  new 
acquisitions.  In  September,  the  general  court  adopted  the 
measure  which  justice  recommended;  neither  the  freemen 
nor  the  deputies  of  New  Hampshire  were  required  to  be 
church  members.  Thus  political  harmony  was  maintained, 
though  the  settlements  long  retained  marks  of  the  differ- 
ence of  their  origin. 

VOL.  i.  22 


338  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

The  attempt  to  acquire  the  land  on  Narragansett  Bay 
•was  less  deserving  of  success.  Massachusetts  proceeded 
with  the  decision  of  an  independent  state.  Samuel  Gorton, 
a  benevolent  enthusiast,  who  used  to  say,  heaven  was  not  a 
place,  there  was  no  heaven  but  in  the  hearts  of  good  men, 
no  hell  but  in  the  mind,  had  created  disturbances  in  the 
district  of  Warwick.  A  minority  of  the  inhabitants, 
1641.  wearied  with  harassing  disputes,  requested  the  inter- 
ference of  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts ;  and  two 
sachems,  near  Providence,  surrendered  the  soil  to  the  juris- 
diction of  that  state.  Gorton  and  his  partisans  did  not 
disguise  their  scorn  for  the  colonial  clergy  ;  they  were  advo- 
cates for  liberty  of  conscience,  and  at  the  same  time,  having 
no  hope  of  protection  except  from  England,  they  were, 
by  their  position,  enemies  to  colonial  independence  ;  they 
denied  the  authority  of  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts, 
not  only  on  the  soil  of  Warwick,  but  everywhere,  inasmuch 
as  it  was  tainted  by  a  want  of  true  allegiance.  Such 
opinions,  if  carried  into  effect,  would  have  subverted 
1643.  the  liberties  of  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  its  ecclesias- 
tical system,  and  were  therefore  by  a  few  thought 
worthy  of  death ;  but  a  small  majority  of  the  deputies  was 
more  merciful,  and  Gorton  and  his  associates  were  impris- 
oned. George  Downing  feared  the  land  would  be  angry  at 
the  sparing  of  their  lives.  The  people  murmured  even  at 
this  less  degree  of  severity,  and  the  imprisoned  men  were 
soon  set  at  liberty ;  but  the  claim  to  the  territory  was  not 
immediately  abandoned. 

The  enlargement  of  the  dominion  of  Massachusetts  was, 
in  part,  a  result  of  the  virtual  independence  which  the 
commotions  in  the  mother  country  had  secured  to  the  colo- 
nies. The  establishment  of  a  UNION  among  the  Puritan 
states  of  New  England  was  a  still  more  important  measure. 
Immediately  after  the  victories  over  the  Pequods, 
1637.  at  a  time  when  the  earliest  synod  had  gathered  in 
Boston,  the  leading  magistrates  and  elders  of  Con- 
necticut proposed  a  confederacy.  Many  of  the  American 
statesmen,  familiar  with  the  character  of  the  government  of 
the  Netherlands,  possessed  sufficient  experience  and  knowl- 


1639.      THE   UNITED   COLONIES   OF  NEW   ENGLAND.       339 

edge  to  frame  the  necessary  plan ;  but  time  was  wanting ; 
the  agents  of  Plymouth  could  not  be  seasonably  summoned, 
and  the  subject  was  deferred. 

In  March,  1638,  Davenport  and  Eaton,  declining  less, 
the  solicitations  of  the  government  of  Massachusetts  March- 
to  remain  within  its  jurisdiction,  pledged  themselves  in  their 
chosen  abode  "  to  be  instrumental  for  the  common  good  of 
the  plantations  which  the  Divine  Providence  had  combined 
together  in  a  strong  bond  of  brotherly  affection,  so  that 
their  several  armies  might  mutually  strengthen  them  both 
against  their  several  enemies."  In  the  course  of  the  year, 
a  union  of  the  Calvinist  colonies  came  again  into  discussion ; 
and  Massachusetts  propounded  as  the  order  of  confederation 
that,  upon  any  matter  of  difference,  the  assembled  commis- 
sioners of  every  one  of  the  confederate  colonies  should 
have  full  power  to  determine  it.  But  those  of  Connecticut, 
from  their  shyness  of  coming  under  the  government  of 
Massachusetts,  insisted  that  the  commissioners,  if  they 
could  not  agree,  should  only  make  reports  to  their  several 
colonies,  till  unanimity  should  be  obtained.  But  Massachu- 
setts, "  holding  it  very  unlikely  that  all  the  churches  in  all 
the  plantations  would  ever  unanimously  agree  upon  the 
same  propositions,  refused  the  reservation  to  each  state  of 
a  negative  upon  the  proceedings  of  the  whole  confederacy ; " 
for,  in  that  case,  "  all  would  have  come  to  nothing,"  and, 
after  infinite  trouble  and  expense,  the  issue  would  have  been 
left  to  the  sword. 

The  Dutch  on  Manhattan  had  received  a  new  and  more 
active  governor,  who  complained  much  of   the  encroach- 
ments  of   Connecticut,   and  sought   by  a  friendly  corre 
spondence  with  Massachusetts  to  nurse  divisions  in  New 
England.     To  guard  against  this  danger,  in  May, 
1639,  Hooker  and  Haynes  sailed  into  Massachusetts      ^Jfayi 
Bay,  where  they  remained  a  month  in  the  hope  to 
bring  about  a  treaty  for  confederation.     The  general  court 
moved  first  in  the  measure,  and  the  more  readily  that  the 
Dutch  "  might  not  notice  any  breach  or  alienation "  be- 
tween kindred  colonies. 

The  work  of  union  was  not  immediately  proceeded  with. 


340  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

In  May,  1643,  the  general  court  of  Massachusetts  received 
an  official  copy  of  the  order  of  the  house  of  commons  of 
the  tenth  of  March  of  that  year,  in  which  it  was  acknowl- 
edged that  "  the  plantations  in  New  England  had,  by  the 
blessing  of  the  Almighty,  had  good  and  prosperous  success, 
without  any  public  charge  to  the  parent  state  ; "  and  their 
imports  and  exports  were  freed  from  all  taxation,  "  until 
the  house  of  commons  should  take  order  to  the  contrary." 
The  general  court  of  Massachusetts  received  the  ordinance 
with  thankful  acknowledgment  of  so  great  a  favor  from 
that  honorable  assembly,  and  "  entered  it  among  their  pub- 
lic records  to  remain  there  to  posterity." 

The  governor  was  directed  in  his  oath  of  office  to  omit  to 
swear  allegiance  to  King  Charles,  "  seeing  that  he  had  vio- 
lated the  privileges  of  parliament  and  had  made  war  upon 
them ; "  and  the  general  court  chose  Winthrop  their  gover- 
nor, and  five  others  "  to  treat  with  their  friends  of  New 
Haven,  Connecticut,  and  Plymouth  about  a  confederacy 
between  them."  At  a  time  so  fraught  with  danger  from 
their  wide  dispersion  on  the  sea-coasts  and  rivers,  from  liv- 
ing encompassed  with  people  of  other  nations  and  strange 
languages,  from  a  combination  of  the  natives  against  the  sev- 
eral English  plantations,  and  by  reason  of  the  sad  distractions 
in  England  from  which  they  had  no  right  to  expect  either 
advice  or  protection,  "they  conceived  it  their  bounden  duty 
without  delay  to  enter  into  a  present  consociation  among 
themselves  for  mutual  help  and  strength,  that,  as  in  nation 
and  religion,  so  in  other  respects  they  might  be  and  con- 
tinue one." 

The  articles  of  confederation,  which  were  corn- 
M^  pleted  in  the  month  of  May,  gave  to  them  all  the 
name  of  THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 
For  themselves  and  their  posterity,  they  entered  into  a 
firm  and  perpetual  league  of  offence  and  defence,  mutual 
advice  and  succor,  both  for  preserving  and  propagating  the 
truths  and  liberties  of  the  gospel,  and  for  their  mutual  safety 
and  welfare.  It  was  established  that  each  of  them  should 
preserve  entirely  to  itself  the  "peculiar  jurisdiction  and  gov- 
ernment "  within  its  own  limits ;  and  with  these  the  conf ed- 


1643.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       341 

eration  was  never  "to  intermeddle."  The  charge  of  all  just 
wars,  whether  offensive  or  defensive,  was  to  be  apportioned 
upon  the  several  jurisdictions  according  to  the  number  of 
their  male  inhabitants  from  sixteen  years  old  to  threescore  ; 
each  jurisdiction  being  left  to  collect  its  quota  according  to  its 
own  custom  of  rating.  In  like  equitable  proportion,  the  ad- 
vantage derived  from  war  was  to  be  shared.  The  method 
of  repelling  a  sudden  invasion  of  one  of  the  colonies  by  an 
enemy,  whether  French,  Dutch,  or  Indian,  was  minutely  laid 
down.  For  the  concluding  of  all  affairs  that  concerned  the 
whole  confederation,  the  largest  state,  superior  to  all  the 
rest  in  territory,  wealth,  and  population,  had  no  greater 
number  of  votes  than  the  least ;  there  were  to  be  chosen,  by 
and  out  of  each  of  the  four  jurisdictions,  two  commis- 
eioners,  of  whom  every  one  was  required  to  be  "  in  ^|; 
church  fellowship."  These  were  to  meet  annually  on 
the  first  Thursday  in  September,  the  first  and  fifth  of  every 
five  years  at  Boston,  the  intervening  years  at  Hartford, 
New  Haven,  and  Plymouth  in  rotation. 

At  each  meeting,  they  might  choose  out  of  themselves  a 
president,  but  could  endow  him  with  no  other  power  than 
to  direct  the  comely  carrying  on  of  all  proceedings.  The 
commissioners  were  by  a  vote  of  three  fourths  of  their  num- 
ber to  determine  all  affairs  of  war,  peace,  and  alliances  ; 
Indian  affairs ;  the  admission  of  new  members  into  the  con- 
federacy ;  the  allowing  of  any  one  of  the  present  confeder- 
ates to  enlarge  its  territory  by  annexing  other  plantations,  or 
any  two  of  these  to  join  in  one  jurisdiction  ;  and  "  all  things 
of  like  nature,  which  are  the  proper  concomitants  or  conse- 
quents of  such  a  confederation  for  amity,  offence,  and  de- 
fence." When  six  of  the  eight  commissioners  could  agree, 
their  vote  was  to  be  final ;  otherwise,  the  propositions  with 
their  reasons  were  to  be  referred  to  the  four  general  courts 
of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  Plymouth,  and  New  Haven. 

The  commissioners  were  enjoined  to  provide  for  peace 
among  the  confederates  themselves,  and  to  secure  free  and 
speedy  justice  to  all  the  confederates  in  each  of  the  other 
jurisdictions  equally  as  in  their  own.  The  runaway  servant 
was  to  be  delivered  up  to  his  master,  and  the  fugitive  from 


342  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

justice  to  the  officer  in  pursuit  of  him.  The  power  of  co- 
ercing a  confederate  who  should  break  any  of  the  articles 
rested  with  the  commissioners  for  the  other  jurisdictions, 
"  that  both  peace  and  this  present  confederation  might  be 
entirely  preserved  without  violation." 

"  This  perpetual  confederation  and  the  several  articles 
and  agreements  thereof,"  so  runs  its  record  of  May, 
J^*y  1643,  "being  read  and  seriously  considered,  were 
fully  allowed  and  confirmed  by  the  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  and  New  Haven."  On  the  seventh  of  the  fol- 
lowing June,  Plymouth  by  its  general  court  gave  order  "  to 
subscribe  the  same  in  its  name,  and  to  affix  thereto  its  seal." 
The  confederacy  possessed  no  direct  executive  power ;  and 
it  remained  for  its  several  members  to  interpret  the  votes  of 
their  commissioners  and  to  carry  them  into  effect.  More- 
over, Massachusetts  too  greatly  exceeded  the  others  in 
power,  and  more  than  once  unjustly  opposed  her  reserved 
rights  to  the  united  decision  of  the  three  other  colonies. 
Yet  the  union  lived  or  lingered  through  forty  years ;  and, 
after  it  was  cut  down,  left  the  hope  that  a  wider  and  better 
one  would  spring  from  its  root. 

The  provision  for  the  reception  of  new  members  into  the 
confederacy  was  without  results.  The  people  beyond  the 
Piscataqua  were  not  admitted,  because  "  they  ran  a  differ- 
ent course  "  from  the  Puritans,  "  both  in  their  ministry  and 
in  their  civil  administration."  The  desire  of  the  plantations 
of  Providence  was  rejected ;  and  the  request  of  the  islanders 
of  Rhode  Island  was  equally  vain,  because  they  would  not 
consent  to  form  a  part  of  the  jurisdiction  of  Plymouth. 

On  the  seventh  of  September,  the  commissioners  of  the 
confederacy  opened  their  first  meeting  by  the  election  of 
John  Winthrop  as  their  president.  They  allowed  the  right 
of  Connecticut  to  colonize  Long  Island,  and  they  assumed 
at  once  the  office  of  protecting  the  settlements  against  the 
natives,  whose  power  was  growing  more  formidable  in  pro- 
portion as  they  became  acquainted  with  the  arts  of  civilized 
life,  but  who  were,  at  the  same  time,  weakened  by  dissen- 
sions among  themselves.  Now  that  the  Pequod  nation  was 
extinct,  the  more  quiet  Narragansetts  could  hardly  remain 


1643.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       343 

at  peace  with  the  less  numerous  Mohegans.  Anger  and  re- 
venge brooded  in  the  mind  of  Miantonomoh.  He  hated  the 
Mohegans,  for  they  were  the  allies  of  the  English,  by  whom 
he  had  been  arraigned  as  a  criminal.  He  had  suffered  in- 
dignities at  Boston,  alike  wounding  to  his  pride  as  a  chief- 
tain and  his  honor  as  a  man.  His  savage  wrath  was  kindled 
against.TJncas,  his  accuser,  whom  he  detested  as  doubly  his 
enemy,  —  once  as  the  sachem  of  a  hostile  tribe,  and  again  as 
a  traitor  to  the  whole  Indian  race,  the  sycophant  of  the 
white  men.  Gathering  his  men  suddenly  together,  in  defi- 
ance of  a  treaty  to  which  the  English  were  parties,  Mianto- 
nomoh, accompanied  by  a  thousand  warriors,  fell  upon  the 
Mohegans.  But  his  movements  were  as  rash  as  his  spirit 
was  impetuous :  he  was  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by  those 
whom  he  had  doomed  as  a  certain  prey  to  his  vengeance. 
By  the  laws  of  Indian  warfare,  the  fate  of  the  captive  was 
death.  Yet  Gorton  and  his  friends,  who  held  their  lands  by 
a  grant  from  Miantonomoh,  interceded  for  their  benefactor. 
The  unhappy  chief  was  conducted  to  Hartford  ;  and  the  wa- 
vering Tineas,  who  had  the  strongest  claims  to  the  gratitude 
and  protection  of  the  English,  asked  the  advice  of  the  com- 
missioners of  the  united  colonies.  Murder  had  ever  been 
severely  punished  by  the  Puritans  :  they  had  at  Plymouth, 
with  the  advice  of  Massachusetts,  executed  three  of  their 
own  men  for  taking  the  life  of  one  Indian ;  and  the  elders, 
to  whom  the  case  of  Miantonomoh  was  referred,  finding 
that  he  had,  deliberately  and  in  time  of  quiet,  murdered  a 
servant  of  the  Mohegan  chief;  that  he  had  fomented  dis- 
contents against  the  English;  and  that,  in  contempt  of  a 
league,  he  had  plunged  into  a  useless  and  bloody  war, — 
could  not  perceive  in  his  career  any  reason  for  interfering 
to  save  him.  Uncas  received  his  captive,  and,  con- 
veying the  helpless  victim  beyond  the  limits  of  the  iws. 
jurisdiction  of  Connecticut,  put  him  to  death.  So 
perished  Miantonomoh,  the  friend  of  the  exiles  from  Massa- 
chusetts, the  benefactor  of  the  fathers  of  Rhode  Island. 

The  tribe  of  Miantonomoh  burned  to  avenge  the  execu- 
tion of  their  chief;  but  they  feared  a  conflict  with  the 
English,  whose  alliance  they  vainly  solicited,  and  who  per- 


344  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

severed  in  protecting  the  Mohegans.  The  Narragansetts 
at  last  submitted  in  sullenness  to  a  peace,  of  which  the 
terras  were  alike  hateful  to  their  independence,  their  pros- 
perity, and  their  love  of  revenge. 

While  the  commissioners,  thus  unreservedly  and  with- 
out appeal,  controlled  the  relation  of  the  native  tribes, 
the  spirit  of  autonomy  was  still  further  displayed  by  a 
direct  negotiation  of  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  governor 
of  Acadia. 

Content  with  the  security  which  the  confederacy  afforded, 

the  people  of  Connecticut  desired  no  guarantee  for  their 

institutions  from  the  government  of  England;  tak- 

1i6*6t°    in&  care  on^y?  by"  a  regular  purchase,  to  obtain  a  title 

to  the  soil  from  the  assigns  of  the  Earl  of  "Warwick. 

The  people  of  Rhode  Island,  excluded  from  the  colonial 

union,  would  never  have  maintained  their  existence  as  a 

separate  state,  had  they  not  sought  the   interference   and 

protection  of  the  mother  country ;  and  the  founder 

lets.       of  the  colony  was  chosen  to  conduct  the  important 

mission. 

Embarking  at  Manhattan,  he  arrived  in  England  about 
the  time  of  the  death  of  Hampden.  The  parliament  had 
committed  the  affairs  of  the  American  colonies  to  the  Earl 
of  Warwick,  as  governor  in  chief,  assisted  by  a  council  of 
five  peers  and  twelve  commoners.  Among  these  common- 
ers was  Henry  Vane,  who  welcomed  the  American  envoy 
as  an  ancient  friend.  The  favor  of  parliament  was  won  by 
the  "printed  Indian  labors  of  Roger  Williams,  the  like 
whereof  was  not  extant  from  any  part  of  America ; "  and 
his  merits  as  a  missionary  induced  "  both  houses  to  grant 
unto  him,  and  friends  with  him,  a  free  and  absolute  char- 
ter of  civil  government  for  those  parts  of  his  abode." 
Mar^U.  Thus  were  the  places  of  refuge  for  "soul-liberty," 
on  the  Narragansett  Bay,  incorporated,  "  with  full 
power  and  authority  to  rule  themselves,  and  such  others  as 
shall  hereafter  inhabit  within  any  part  of  the  said  tract  of 
land,  by  such  a  form  of  civil  government  as  by  voluntary 
consent  of  all,  or  the  greater  part  of  them,  they  shall  find 
most  suitable  to  their  estate  and  condition ; "  "  to  place  and 


1644.      THE  UNITED   COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       345 

displace  officers  of  justice,  as  they,  or  the  greatest  part  of 
them,  shall  by  free  consent  agree  unto."  To  the  Long  Par- 
liament, and  especially  to  Sir  Henry  Vane,  Rhode  Island 
owes  its  existence  as  a  political  state. 

A  double  triumph  awaited  Williams  on  his  return  leu 
to  New  England.  He  arrived  at  Boston,  and  letters 
from  the  parliament  insured  him  a  safe  reception  from  those 
who  had  decreed  his  banishment.  But  what  honors  were 
prepared  for  the  happy  negotiator,  on  his  return  to  the  prov- 
ince which  he  had  founded !  As  he  reached  Seekonk,  he 
found  the  water  covered  with  a  fleet  of  canoes ;  all  Provi- 
dence had  come  forth  to  welcome  the  return  of  its  bene- 
factor. Receiving  their  successful  ambassador,  the  group  of 
boats  started  for  the  opposite  shore ;  and,  as  they  paddled 
across  the  stream,  Roger  Williams,  placed  in  the  centre  of 
his  grateful  fellow-citizens,  and  glowing  with  the  purest  joy, 
"  was  elevated  and  transported  out  of  himself." 

And  now  came  the  experiment  of  the  efficacy  of  popular 
sovereignty.  The  value  of  a  moral  principle  may  be  tried 
on  a  small  community  as  well  as  a  large  one ;  the  experi- 
ment on  magnetism,  made  with  a  child's  toy,  gives  as  sure 
a  result  as  when  the  agency  of  that  subtle  power  is  watched 
in  its  influence  on  the  globe.  There  were  already  several 
towns  in  the  new  state,  filled  with  tht>  strangest  and  most 
incongruous  elements,  —  Anabaptists  and  Antinomians,  fa- 
natics (as  its  enemies  asserted)  and  infidels ;  so  that,  if  a 
man  had  lost  his  religious  opinions,  he  might  have  been  sure 
to  find  them  again  in  some  village  of  Rhode  Island.  All 
men  were  equal ;  all  might  meet  and  debate  in  the  public 
assemblies ;  all  might  aspire  to  office ;  the  people,  for  a  sea- 
son, constituted  itself  its  own  tribune,  and  every  public  law 
required  confirmation  in  the  primary  assemblies.  The  little 
"  democracie,"  which,  at  the  beat  of  the  drum  or  the  voice 
of  the  herald,  used  to  assemble  beneath  an  oak  or  by  the 
open  seaside,  was  famous  for  its  "  headiness  and  tumults," 
its  stormy  town-meetings,  and  the  angry  feuds  of  its  herds- 
men and  shepherds ;  but,  true  as  the  needle  to  the  pole,  the 
popular  will  instinctively  pursued  the  popular  interest. 
Amidst  the  jarring  quarrels  of  rival  statesmen  in  the  plan- 


346  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X, 

tations,  good  men  were  chosen  to  administer  the  govern- 
ment;  and  the   spirit  of   mercy,  of  liberality  and 
Mwid.  wisdom,  was  impressed  on  its  legislation.     "  Our  pop- 
ularitie,"  say  their  records,  "  shall  not,  as  some  con- 
jecture it  will,  prove  an  anarchie,  and  so  a  common  tirannie  ; 
for  we  are  exceeding  desirous  to  preserve  every  man  safe  in 
his  person,  name,  and  estate." 

Yet  danger  still  menaced.  The  executive  council 
April's.  °f  state  m  England  had  granted  to  Coddington  a 
commission  for  governing  the  islands ;  and  such  a 
dismemberment  of  the  territory  of  the  narrow  state  must 
have  terminated  in  the  divisipn  of  the  remaining  soil  be- 
tween the  adjacent  governments.  Williams  again 
NOV.  returned  to  England;  and,  with  John  Clarke,  his 
colleague  in  the  mission,  was  again  successful.  The 
Oct.22.  dangerous  commission  was  vacated,  and  the  charter 
and  union  of  what  now  forms  the  state  of  Rhode 
Island  confirmed.  The  general  assembly,  in  its  gratitude, 
desired  that  Williams  might  himself  obtain  from  the  sov- 
ereign authority  in  England  an  appointment  as  governor, 
for  a  year,  over  the  whole  colony.  But,  if  gratitude  blinded 
the  province,  ambition  did  not  blind  its  benevolent  envoy. 
Williams  refused  to  sanction  a  measure  which  would  have 
furnished  a  most  dangerous  precedent,  and  was  content  with 
the  honor  of  doing  good.  His  success  with  the  executive 
council  was  due  to  the  intercession  of  Sir  Henry  Vane. 
"  Under  God,  the  sheet-anchor  of  Rhode  Island  was  Sir 
Henry."  "  From  the  first  beginning  of  the  Provi- 
Aug.*27.  dence  colony,"  thus  did  the  town-meeting  address  Sir 
Henry  Vane,  "  you  have  been  a  noble  and  true  friend 
to  an  outcast  and  despised  people ;  we  have  ever  reaped  the 
sweet  fruits  of  your  constant  loving-kindness  and  favor.  We 
have  long  been  free  from  the  iron  yoke  of  wolvish  bishops  : 
we  have  sitten  dry  from  the  streams  of  blood  spilt  by  the 
wars  in  our  native  country.  We  have  not  felt  the  new 
chains  of  the  Presbyterian  tyrants,  nor  in  this  colony  have 
we  been  consumed  by  the  over-zealous  fire  of  the  (so  called) 
godly  Christian  magistrates.  We  have  not  known  what  an 
excise  means;  we  have  almost  forgotten  what  tithes  are. 


1642.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       347 

We  have  long  drunk  of  the  cup  of  as  great  liberties  as  any 
people,  that  we  can  hear  of,  under  the  whole  heaven. 
When  we  are  gone,  our  posterity  and  children  after  us  shall 
read,  in  our  town  records,  your  loving-kindness  to  us,  and 
our  real  endeavor  after  peace  and  righteousness." 

Far  different  were  the  early  destinies  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Maine.  A  general  court  was  held  at  Saco,  jj^s. 
under  the  auspices  of  the  lord  proprietary,  who  had 
drawn  upon  paper  a  stately  scheme  of  government,  with 
deputies  and  counsellors,  a  marshal  and  a  treasurer  of  the 
public  revenue,  chancellors,  and  a  master  of  the 
ordnance,  and  every  thing  that  the  worthy  old  man  y^'i. 
deemed  essential  to  his  greatness.  Sir  Ferdinando 
had  "travailed  in  the  cause  above  forty  years,"  and  ex- 
pended above  twenty  thousand  pounds ;  yet  all  the  regalia 
which  Thomas  Gorges,  his  trusty  and  well-beloved  cousin  and 
deputy,  could  find  in  the  principality,  were  not  enough  for 
the  scanty  furniture  of  a  cottage.  Agamenticus,  though  in 
truth  but "  a  poor  village,"  soon  became  a  chartered  borough ; 
like  another  Romulus,  the  veteran  soldier  resolved  to  per- 
petuate his  name,  and,  under  the  name  of  Gorgeana,  the 
land  round  York  became  as  good  a  city  as  seals  and  parch- 
ment, a  nominal  mayor  and  aldermen,  a  chancery  court  and 
a  court-leet,  sergeants  and  white  rods,  can  make  of  a  town 
of  less  than  three  hundred  inhabitants  and  its  petty  officers. 
Yet  the  nature  of  Gorges  was  generous,  and  his  piety  sin- 
cere. He  sought  pleasure  in  doing  good ;  fame,  by  advanc- 
ing Christianity  among  the  heathen  ;  a  durable  monument, 
by  erecting  houses,  villages,  and  towns.  The  contemporary 
and  friend  of  Raleigh,  he  adhered  to  schemes  in  America 
for  almost  half  a  century ;  and,  long  after  he  became  con- 
vinced of  their  unproductiveness,  was  still  bent  on  plans  of 
colonization,  at  an  age  when  other  men  are  but  preparing  to 
die  with  decorum.  Firmly  attached  to  the  monarchy,  he 
never  disobeyed  his  king,  except  that,  as  a  churchman  and 
a  Protestant,  he  refused  to  serve  against  the  Huguenots. 
When  the  wars  in  England  broke  out,  the  septuagenarian 
royalist  buckled  on  his  armor  and  gave  his  last  strength  to 
the  defence  of  the  unfortunate  Charles.  In  America,  his 


348  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X, 

fortunes  had  met  with   a  succession   of  untoward 
Aprii7.   events-      The   patent  for   Lygonia    had  been   pur- 
chased by  Rigby,  a  republican  member  of  the  Long 
Parliament ;  and  a  dispute  ensued  between  the  deputies  of 
the  respective  proprietaries.      In  vain  did  Cleaves, 
1644.       the  agent  of  Rigby,  solicit  the  assistance  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  the  colony  warily  refused  to  take  part  in 
the  strife.     Both  aspirants   now  solicited  the   Bay  magis- 
trates to  act  as  umpires.     The  cause  was  learnedly 
June's,   argued  in  Boston,  and  the  decree  of  the  court  was 
oracular.     Neither  party  was  allowed  to  have  a  clear 
right ;  and  both  were  enjoined  to  live  in  peace.     But  how 
could  Vines  and  Cleaves  assert  their  authority?    On  the 
death  of  Gorges,  the  people  repeatedly  wrote  to  his 
164T-8.    heirs.     No  answer  was  received ;  and  such  commis- 
sioners as  had  authority  from  Europe  gradually  with- 
drew.    There  was  no  relief  for  the  colonists  but  in  them- 
selves ;  and  the  inhabitants  of  Piscataqua,  Gorgeana, 
jjj^      and  Wells,  following  the  American  precedent,  with 
free  and  unanimous  consent  formed  themselves  into 
a  body  politic  for  the  purposes  of  self-government.     Massa- 
chusetts readily  offered  its  protection.     The  great 
charter  of  the  Bay  company  was  unrolled  before  the 
general  court  in  Boston ;  and,  "  upon  perusal  of  the 
instrument,  it  was  voted  that  this  jurisdiction  extends  from 
the  northernmost  part  of  the  river  Merrimack,  and  three 
miles  more,  north,  be  it  one  hundred  miles,  more  or  lesse, 
from  the  sea ;  and  then  upon  a  straight  line  east  and  west 
to  each  sea."     The  words  were  precise.     Nothing  remained 
but  to  find  the  latitude  of  a  point  three  miles  to  the  north  of 
the  remotest  waters  of  the  Merrimack,  and  to  annex  the  terri- 
tory of  Maine  which  lies  south  of  that  parallel ;  for  the  grant 
to    Massachusetts  was  prior   to  the    patents  under  which 
Rigby  and  the  heirs  of  Gorges  had  been  disputing.   The  "  en- 
grasping  "  Massachusetts  promptly  despatched  commissioners 
to  the  eastward  to  settle  the  government.     The  re- 
1652-3.    monstrances  of  Edward  Godfrey,  then  governor  of  the 
province,  a  loyal  friend  to  the  English  monarchy  and 
the  English  church,  were  disregarded ;  and  one  town  after 


1644.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       349 

another,  yielding  in  part  to  menaces  and  armed  force,  gave 
in  its  adhesion.  Great  care  was  observed  to  guard  the  rights 
of  property ;  every  man  was  confirmed  in  his  possessions ; 
the  religious  liberty  of  the  Episcopalians  was  left  unharmed ; 
the  privileges  of  citizenship  were  extended  to  all  inhabi- 
tants; and  the  eastern  country  gradually,  yet  reluctantly, 
submitted  to  the  necessity  of  the  change.  When  the  claims 
of  the  proprietaries  in  England  were  urged  before  Crom- 
well, many  inhabitants  of  the  towns  of  York,  Kit- 
tery,  "Wells,  Saco,  and  Cape  Porpoise,  yet  not  a  1656. 
majority,  remonstrated.  To  sever  them  from  Massachusetts 
would  be  to  them  "  the  subverting  of  all  civil  order." 

By  following  the  most  favorable   interpretation   of  its 
charter,  Massachusetts  extended  its  frontier  to  the 
islands  in  Casco  Bay.    Within  the  year  after  the  con-      1644. 
federation  of  the  four  Calvinist  colonies,  the  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts  was  brought  nearer  to  its  present 
form.     The  discontent  of  the  deputies  at  the  separate  nega- 
tive of  the  assistants  came  to  its  height,  when,  on  an  appeal 
to  the  general  court,  the  assistants  and  the  deputies  sitting 
together  reversed  a  decision  of  the  lower  court,  and  the  as- 
sistants, by  their  separate  act,  immediately  restored  it. 

The  time  had  come  for  a  change ;  but,  instead  of  March. 
the  old  proposition  to  take  from  the  magistrates  their 
negative,  and  so  introduce  the  system  of  one  irresponsible, 
absolute  chamber,  better  thoughts  arose,  and, "  as  the  ground- 
work for  government  and  order  in  the  issuing  of  business 
of  greatest  and  highest  consequence,"  it  was  agreed  that  the 
magistrates  and  deputies  should  sit  in  separate  chambers, 
each  of  which  should  have  the  right  to  originate  orders 
and  laws,  and  each  have  a  negative  on  the  acts  of  the 
other.  So  far  the  form  of  the  Massachusetts  government 
was  established  as  it  now  exists ;  but  as  yet  no  separate 
negative  was  allowed  to  the  governor. 

With  the  increase  of  English  freedom,  the  dangers  which 
had  menaced  Massachusetts  appeared  to  pass  away ;  its  gov- 
ernment began  to  adventure  on  a  more  lenient  policy ;  the 
sentence  of  exile  against  Wheelwright  was  rescinded  ;  a 
proposition  was  made  to  extend  the  franchises  of  the  com- 


350  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

pany  to  those  who  were  not  church  members,  provided  "  a 
civil  agreement  among  all  the  English  could  be  formed" 
for  asserting  the  common  liberty.  For  this  purpose,  letters 
were  written  to  the  confederated  states ;  but  the  want  of 
concert  defeated  the  plan.  The  law  which,  nearly  at  the 
same  time,  threatened  obstinate  Anabaptists  with  exile,  was 
not  designed  to  be  enforced.  "  Anabaptism,"  says  Jeremy 
Taylor,  in  his  famous  argument  for  liberty,  "  is  as  much  to 
be  rooted  out  as  any  thing  that  is  the  greatest  pest  and 
nuisance  to  the  public  interest."  The  fathers  of  Massachu- 
setts reasoned  more  mildly.  The  dangers  apprehended  from 
some  wild  and  turbulent  spirits,  "  whose  conscience  and  re- 
ligion seemed  only  to  sett  forth  themselves  and  raise  con- 
tentions in  the  country,  did  provoke  us" — such  was  their 
language  at  the  time  — "  to  provide  for  our  safety  by  a 
law,  that  all  such  should  take  notice  how  unwelcome  they 

should  be  unto  us,  either  comeing  or  staying.  But 
1646.  for  such  as  differ  from  us  only  in  judgment,  and 

live  peaceably  amongst  us,  such  have  no  cause  to 
complain ;  for  it  hath  never  beene  as  yet  putt  in  exe- 
cution against  any  of  them,  although  such  are  known  to 
live  amongst  us."  Even  two  of  the  presidents  of  Harvard 
College  were  Anabaptists. 

While  dissenters  were  thus  treated  with  an  equivocal 
toleration,  no  concessions  were  made  towards  the  govern- 
ment in  England.  It  was  the  creed  of  even  the  most  loyal 
deputy,  that,  "  if  the  king,  or  any  party  from  him,  should 
attempt  any  thing  against  this  commonwealth,"  it  was  the 
common  duty  "  to  spend  estate,  and  life,  and  all,  without 
scruple,  in  its  defence ; "  that  "  if  the  parliament  itself  should 
hereafter  be  of  a  malignant  spirit,  then,  if  the  colony  have 
strength  sufficient,  it  may  withstand  any  authority  from 

thence  to  its  hurt."  Massachusetts  called  itself  "  a 
1644.  perfect  republic."  Nor  was  the  expression  a  vain 

boast.  The  commonwealth,  by  force  of  arms,  pre- 
served in  its  harbors  a  neutrality  between  the  ships  of  the 
opposing  English  factions ;  and  the  law,  which  placed  death 
as  the  penalty  on  any  "  attempt  at  the  alteration  of  the  frame 
of  polity  fundamentally,"  was  well  understood  to  be  aimed 


1644.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       351 

at  those  who  should  assert  the  supremacy  of  the  English 
parliament.  The  establishment  of  a  mint,  in  1652,  was  a 
further  exercise  of  sovereignty. 

"Whilst  the  public  mind  was  agitated  with  discussions  on 
liberty  of  conscience  and  independence  of  English  jurisdic- 
tion, the  community,  in  this  infancy  of  popular  government, 
was  disturbed  with  a  third  "  great  question  about  the  au- 
thority of  the  magistrates  and  the  liberty  of  the  people." 

The  oldest  dispute  in  the  colony  related  to  the 
grounds  and  limits  of  the  authority  of  the  governor.  1632. 
In  Boston,  on  occasion  of  dividing  the  town  lands,  1634. 
"  men  of  the  inferior  sort  were  chosen."  Eliot,  the 
apostle  of  the  Indians,  maintained  that  treaties  should  not 
be  made  without  consulting  the  commons.  The  doc- 
trine of  rotation  in  office  was  asserted,  even  to  the  1639. 
neglect  of  Winthrop,  "lest  there  should  be  a  gov- 
ernor for  life."  When  one  of  the  elders  proposed  that  the 
place  of  governor  should  be  held  for  life,  the  deputies  im- 
mediately resolved  that  no  magistrate  of  any  kind 
should  be  elected  for  more  than  a  year.  The  magis- 
trates  once,  assembling  in  a  sort  of  aristocratic  cau- 
cus, nominated  several  persons  for  office ;  and  every  one 
of  the  candidates  thus  proposed  was  rejected.  On  the 
other  hand,  when  one  of  the  ministers  attempted  to  dis- 
suade the  freemen  from  choosing  the  same  officers  twice 
in  succession,  they  disliked  the  interference  of  the  adviser 
more  than  they  loved  the  doctrine  of  frequent  change,  and 
re-elected  the  old  magistrates  almost  without  exception. 
The  condition  of  a  new  colony  which  discarded  the  legisla- 
tion of  the  mother  country  necessarily  left  many  things  to 
the  opinions  of  the  executive.  The  people  were  loud  in 
demanding  a  government  of  law,  and  not  of  discretion. 
No  sooner  had  Winthrop  pleaded  against  the  establish- 
ment of  an  exact  penalty  for  every  offence, — because  jus- 
tice, not  less  than  mercy,  imposed  the  duty  of  regulating 
the  punishment  by  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  —  than 
they  raised  the  cry  of  arbitrary  power,  and  refused  the  hope 
of  clemency,  when  it  was  to  be  obtained  from  the  capricious 
judgments  of  a  magistrate.  The  authority  exercised  by  the 


352  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

assistants  during  the  intervals  between  the  sessions 
1644.  became  a  subject  of  apprehension.  A  majority  of  the 

deputies  proposed  to  substitute  a  joint  commission. 
The  proposition  being  declined  as  inconsistent  with  the  pa- 
tent, they  then  desired  to  reserve  the  question  for  further 
deliberation.  When  to  this  it  was  answered  that,  in  the 
mean  time,  the  assistants  would  act  according  to  the  power 
and  trust  which  they  claimed  by  the  charter,  the  deputies 
immediately  rejoined,  by  their  speaker,  Hawthorne  :  "  You 
will  not  be  obeyed." 

Such  had  been  the  progress  of  public  opinion, 
6451  when  the  popular  party  felt  a  consciousness  of  so 
great  strength  as  to  desire  a  struggle  with  its  opponents. 
The  opportunity  could  not  long  be  wanting.  The  execu- 
tive magistrates,  accustomed  to  tutelary  vigilance  over  the 
welfare  of  the  towns,  had  set  aside  a  military  election  in 
Hingham.  There  had  been,  perhaps,  in  the  proceedings, 
sufficient  irregularity  to  warrant  the  interference.  The 
affair  came  before  the  general  court.  "  Two  of  the  magis- 
trates and  a  small  majority  of  the  deputies  were  of  opinion 
that  the  magistrates  exercised  too  much  power,  and  that 
the  people's  liberty  was  thereby  in  danger;  while  nearly 
half  the  deputies,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  magistrates, 
judged  that  authority  was  over-much  slighted,  which,  if  not 
remedied,  would  endanger  the  commonwealth  and  introduce 
a  mere  democracy."  The  two  branches  being  thus  at  vari- 
ance, a  reference  to  the  arbitration  of  the  elders  was  pro- 
posed. But  "  to  this  the  deputies  would  by  no  means 
consent ;  for  they  knew  that  many  of  the  elders  were  more 
careful  to  uphold  the  honor  and  power  of  the  magistrates 
than  themselves  well  liked  of."  The  angry  conferences  of 
a  long  session  followed.  But  the  magistrates,  sustained 
by  the  ministers,  excelled  the  popular  party  in  firmness 
and  in  self-possession.  The  latter  lost  ground  by  joining 
issue  on  a  question  where  its  own  interest  eventually  re- 
quired its  defeat. 

The  root  of  the  disturbance  at  Hingham  existed  in  "  a 
presbyterial  spirit,"  which  opposed  the  government  of  the 
colonial  commonwealth.  Some  of  those  who  pleaded  the 


1645.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       353 

laws  of  England  against  the  charter  and  the  administra- 
tion in  Massachusetts  had  been  committed  by  Winthrop, 
then  deputy  governor,  for  contempt  of  the  established 
authority.  It  was  proposed  to  procure  their  release  by  hia 
impeachment.  Hitherto  the  enemies  of  the  state  had  united 
with  the  popular  party,  and  both  had  assailed  the  charter 
as  the  basis  of  magisterial  power ;  the  former  with  the 
view  of  invoking  the  interposition  of  England,  the  latter 
in  the  hope  of  increasing  popular  liberty.  But  the  citizens 
woiild  not,  even  in  the  excitement  of  polit.ical  divisions, 
wrong  the  purest  of  their  leaders,  and  the  factious  elements 
were  rendered  harmless  by  decomposition.  Winthrop  ap- 
peared at  the  bar  only  to  triumph  in  his  acquittal,  while 
his  false  accusers  were  punished  by  fines.  "  Civil  liberty," 
said  the  noble-minded  man,  in  "  a  little  speech  "  on  resuming 
his  seat  upon  the  bench,  "  is  the  proper  end  and  object  of 
authority,  and  cannot  subsist  without  it.  It  is  a  liberty  to 
that  only  which  is  good,  just,  and  honest.  This  liberty  you 
are  to  stand  for  with  the  hazard  not  only  of  your  goods, 
but,  if  need  be,  of  your  lives.  Whatsoever  crosseth  this  is 
not  authority,  but  a  distemper  thereof." 

It  now  became  possible  to  adjust  the  long-con-  1645. 
tinned  difference  by  a  compromise.  The  power  of 
the  magistrates  over  the  militia  was  diminished  by  law ;  but 
though  the  magistrates  themselves  were  by  some  declared 
to  be  but  public  servants,  holding  "  a  ministerial  office,"  and 
though  it  became  a  favorite  idea  that  all  authority  resides 
essentially  with  the  people  in  their  body  representative,  yet 
the  Hingham  disturbers  were  punished  by  heavy  fines,  while 
Winthrop  and  his  friends  retained,  what  they  deserved,  the 
affectionate  confidence  of  the  colony. 

The  court  of  Massachusetts  was  ready  to  concede  the 
enjoyment  of  religious  worship  under  Presbyterian  forms ; 
yet  it»  discontented  enemies,  defeated  in  their  hope  of  a 
union  with  the  popular  party,  determined  to  rally  on  the 
principle  of  liberty  of  conscience.  The  attempt  was  artful, 
for  that  principle  had  been  rapidly  making  progress.  Many 
books  had  come  from  England  in  defence  of  toleration. 
Many  of  the  court  were  well  inclined  to  suspend  the  laws 


354  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

against  Anabaptists,  and  the  order  subjecting  strangers  to 
the  supervision  of  the  magistrates ;  and  Winthrop  thought 
that  "  the  rule  of  hospitality  required  more  moderation  and 
indulgence."  In  Boston,  a  powerful  liberal  pai'ty  already 
openly  existed.  But  now  the  apparent  purpose  of  advanc- 
ing religious  freedom  was  made  to  disguise  measures  of 
the  deadliest  hostility  to  the  frame  of  civil  government. 
The  nationality  of  New  England  was  in  danger.  William 
Vassal,  of  Scituate,  was  the  chief  of  the  "  busy  and  factious 
spirits,  always  opposite  to  the  civil  governments  of  the 
country  and  the  way  of  its  churches ; "  and  at  the  same 
time,  through  his  brother,  a  member  of  the  Long  Parlia- 
ment and  of  the  commission  for  the  colonies,  he  possessed 
influence  in  England. 

The  new  party  desired  to  subvert  the  charter  govern- 
ment, and  introduce  a  general  governor  from  England.  They 
endeavored  to  acquire  strength  by  rallying  all  the  mate- 
rials of  opposition.  The  friends  of  Presbyterianism,  which 
was  become  the  ruling  power  in  the  English  parliament, 
were  soothed  by  hopes  of  a  triumph ;  the  democratic  party 
was  assured  that  the  government  should  be  more  popular ; 
while  the  penurious  were  provoked  by  complaints  of  unwise 
expenditures  and  intolerable  taxations.  But  the  people 
refused  to  be  deceived ;  the  petition  to  the  general  court 
for  redress  of  grievances  had  with  difficulty  obtained  the 
signatures  of  seven  men,  and  of  these  some  were  sojourners 
in  the  colony,  who  desired  only  an  excuse  for  appealing  to 
England.  Written  in  a  spirit  of  wanton  insult,  it  intro- 
duced every  topic  that  had  been  made  the  theme  of  party 
discussion,  and  asserted  that  there  existed  in  the  country 
no  settled  foi-m  of  government  according  to  the  laws  of 
England.  An  entire  revolution  was  demanded ;  "  if  not," 
add  the  remonstrants,  "  we  shall  be  necessitated  to  apply 
our  humble  desires  to  both  houses  of  parliament ; "  and 
there  was  fear  that  they  would  obtain  a  favorable  hear- 
ing before  the  body  whose  authority  they  labored  to  en- 
large. 

Gorton  had  carried  his  complaints  to  the  mother 
1646.       country,    and,    though    unaided   by  personal    influ- 


1646.      THE  UNITED   COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       355 

ence  or  by  powerful  friends,  had  succeeded  in  all  his 
wishes.  At  this  very  juncture,  an  order  respecting  his 
claims  arrived  in  Boston,  and  was  couched  in  terras  which 
involved  an  assertion  of  the  right  of  parliament  to  reverse 
the  decisions  and  control  the  government  of  Massachusetts, 
and  so  struck  at  the  groundwork  of  the  rising  common- 
wealth. Had  the  Long  Parliament  succeeded  in  revoking 
the  patent  of  Massachusetts,  the  Stuarts,  on  their  restora- 
tion, would  have  found  not  one  chartered  government  in 
the  colonies,  and  the  tenor  of  American  history  would  have 
been  changed.  The  people  rallied  with  great  unanimity 
in  support  of  their  magistrates.  A  law  had  been  drawn 
up,  conferring  on  all  residents  equal  power  in  town  affairs, 
and  enlarging  the  constituency  of  the  state.  It  was  deemed 
safe  to  defer  the  enactment  till  the  present  controversy 
should  be  settled ;  the  order  against  Anabaptists  was  like- 
wise left  unrepealed ;  and,  notwithstanding  strong  opposi- 
tion from  the  friends  of  toleration  in  Boston,  it  was  resolved 
to  convene  a  synod  to  give  counsel  on  the  permanent  settle- 
ment of  the  ecclesiastical  polity. 

In  November,  1646,  the  general  court  assembled  t646. 
for  the  discussion  of  the  usurpations  of  parliament  Nov-4- 
and  the  dangers  from  domestic  treachery.  The  elders  did 
not  fail  to  attend  in  the  gloomy  season.  One  faithless 
deputy  was  desired  to  withdraw;  and  then,  with  closed 
doors  that  the  consultation  might  remain  in  the  breast  of 
the  court,  the  nature  of  the  relation  with  England  was 
made  the  subject  of  debate.  After  much  deliberation,  it 
•was  agreed  that  Massachusetts  owed  to  England  the  same 
allegiance  as  the  free  Hanse  Towns  had  rendered  to  the 
empire ;  as  Normandy,  when  its  dukes  were  kings  of  Eng- 
land, had  paid  to  the  monarchs  of  France.  It  was  also 
resolved  not  to  accept  a  new  charter  from  the  parliament, 
for  that  would  imply  a  surrender  of  the  old.  Besides, 
parliament  granted  none  but  by  way  of  ordinance,  which 
the  king  might  one  day  refuse  to  confirm,  and  always 
made  for  itself  an  express  reservation  of  "  a  supreme 
power  in  all  things."  The  elders,  after  a  day's  consulta- 
tion, confirmed  the  decisions :  '*  If  parliament  should  be 


356  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

less  inclinable  to  us,  we  must  wait  upon  Providence  for 
the  preservation  of  our  just  liberties." 

The  colony  then  proceeded  to  exercise  the  independence 
which  it  claimed.  The  general  court  summoned  the  dis- 
turbers of  the  public  security  into  its  presence.  Robert 
Childe  and  his  companions  appealed  to  the  commissioners 
in  England.  The  appeal  was  not  admitted.  "  The  char- 
ter," he  urged,  "  does  but  create  a  corporation  within  the 
realm,  subject  to  English  laws."  "  Plantations,"  replied  the 
court,  "  are  above  the  rank  of  an  ordinary  corporation  ;  they 
have  been  esteemed  other  than  towns,  yea,  than  many  cities. 
Colonies  are  the  foundations  of  great  commonwealths.  It 
is  the  fruit  of  pride  and  folly  to  despise  the  day  of  small 
things." 

To  the  parliament  of  England,  which  was  then  Presbyte- 
rian, the  legislature  remonstrated  with  the  noblest  frankness 
against  any  assertion  of  the  paramount  authority  of  that 
body. 

"  An  order  from  England,"  say  they,  "  is  prejudicial  to 
our  chartered  liberties,  and  to  our  well-being  in  this 
£g®;  remote  part  of  the  world.  Times  may  be  changed ; 
for  all  things  here  below  are  subject  to  vanity,  and 
other  princes  or  parliaments  may  arise.  Let  not  succeeding 
generations  have  cause  to  lament  and  say,  England  sent  our 
fathers  forth  with  happy  liberties,  which  they  enjoyed  many 
years,  notwithstanding  all  the  enmity  and  opposition  of  the 
prelacy,  and  other  potent  adversaries ;  and  yet  these  liberties 
were  lost  in  the  season  when  England  itself  recovered  its 
own.  We  rode  out  the  dangers  of  the  sea  :  shall  we  perish 
in  port?  "We  have  not  admitted  appeals  to  your  authority, 
being  assured  they  cannot  stand  with  the  liberty  and  power 
granted  us  by  our  charter,  and  would  be  destructive  to  all 
government.  These  considerations  are  not  new  to  the  high 
court  of  parliament,  the  records  whereof  bear  witness  of 
the  wisdom  and  faithfulness  of  our  ancestors  in  that  great 
council,  who,  in  those  times  of  darkness  when  they  ac- 
knowledged a  supremacy  in  the  Roman  bishops  in  all  causes 
ecclesiastical,  yet  would  not  allow  appeals  to  Rome. 

"  The  wisdom  and  experience  of  that  great  council,  the 


1647.      THE  UNITED   COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       357 

English  parliament,  are  more  able  to  prescribe  rules  of 
government  and  judge  causes  than  such  poor  rustics  as  a 
wilderness  can  breed  up ;  yet  the  vast  distance  between 
England  and  these  parts  abates  the  virtue  of  the  strongest 
influences.  Your  councils  and  judgments  can  neither  be  so 
well  grounded,  nor  so  seasonably  applied,  as  might  either 
be  useful  to  us,  or  safe  for  yourselves,  in  your  discharge,  in 
the  great  day  of  account.  If  any  miscarriage  shall  befall 
us  when  we  have  the  government  in  our  own  hands,  the 
state  of  England  shall  not  answer  for  it. 

"  Continue  your  favorable  aspect  to  these  infant  planta- 
tions, that  we  may  still  rejoice  and  bless  our  God  under 
your  shadow,  and  be  there  still  nourished  with  the  warmth 
and  dews  of  heaven.  Confirm  our  liberties ;  discountenance 
our  enemies,  the  disturbers  of  our  peace  under  pretence  of 
our  injustice.  A  gracious  testimony  of  your  wonted  favor 
will  oblige  us  and  our  posterity." 

In  the  same  spirit,  Edward  Winslow,  the  agent  for  Mas- 
sachusetts in  England,  publicly  denied  that  the  jurisdiction 
of  parliament  extended  to  America.  "If  the  parliament 
of  England  should  impose  laws  upon  us,  having  no  bur- 
gesses in  the  house  of  commons,  nor  capable  of  a  summons  by 
reason  of  the  vast  distance,  we  should  lose  the  liberties  and 
freedom  of  English  indeed."  It  marks  an  honest  love  of 
liberty  and  of  justice  in  the  Long  Parliament,  that  the  doc- 
trine of  colonial  equality  was  received  with  favor.  "  Sir 
Henry  Vane,  though  he  might  have  taken  occasion  against 
the  colony  for  some  dishonor  which  he  apprehended  to  have 
been  unjustly  put  upon  him  there,  yet  showed  himself  a 
true  friend  to  New  England,  and  a  man  of  a  noble 
and  generous  mind."  After  ample  deliberation,  the  1647. 
committee  of  parliament  magnanimously  replied : 
"We  encourage  no  appeals  from  your  justice.  We  leave 
you  with  all  the  freedom  and  latitude  that  may,  in  any 
respect,  be  duly  claimed  by  you." 

Such  were  the  arts  by  which  Massachusetts  preserved 
its  liberties.  Its  magistrates  were  sustained  with  great 
unanimity;  hardly  five-and-twenty  persons  could  be  found 
in  the  whole  jurisdiction  to  join  in  a  coniplaint  against 


358  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  X. 

the  strictness  of  the  government;  and  when  the  discon- 
tented introduced  the  dispute  into  the  elections,  their  candi- 
dates were  defeated  by  an  overwhelming  majority. 

The  harmony  of  the  people  had  been  confirmed  by  the 
courage  of  the  elders,  who  gave  fervor  to  the  enthusiasm  of 
patriotism.  "It  had  been  as  unnatural  for  a  right  New 
England  man  to  live  without  an  able  ministry  as  for  a  smith 
to  work  his  iron  without  a  fire."  The  union  between  tho 
elders  and  the  state  could  not,  therefore,  but  become  more 
intimate  than  ever ;  and  religion  was  venerated  and  cher- 
ished as  the  security  against  political  subserviency.  When 
the  synod  met  by  adjournment,  it  was  by  the  common  con- 
sent of  all  the  Puritan  colonies  that  a  system  of  church 
government  was  established  for  the  congregations.  The 
platform  retained  authority  for  more  than  a  century,  and 
has  not  yet  lost  its  influence.  It  excluded  the  Presbyterian 
modes  of  discipline  from  New  England. 

1650  to        The  Long  Parliament  asserted  its  power  over  the 
1655.      royalist  colonies  in  general  terms,  which  seemed  alike 

to  threaten  the  plantations  of  the  north ;  and,  after  royalty 
was  abolished,  it  invited  Massachusetts  to  receive  a  new 
patent,  and  to  hold  courts  and  issue  warrants  in  its  name. 
But  the  men  of  that  commonwealth  were  too  wary  to 
merge  their  rights  in  the  acts  of  a  government  of  which 
the  decline  seemed  approaching.  In  a  public  state  paper, 
they  refused  to  submit  to  its  requisitions,  and  yet  never 
carried  their  remonstrance  beyond  the  point  which  their 
charter  appeared  to  them  to  warrant. 

After  the  successes  of  Cromwell  in  Ireland,  he  vol- 
untarily expressed  his  interest  in  New  England,  by 
offering  its  inhabitants  estates  and  a  settlement  in  the  island 
which  his  arms  had  subdued.  His  offers  were  declined; 
for  the  emigrants  loved  their  land  of  refuge,  where  their 
own  courage  and  toils  had  established  "  the  liberties  of  the 
gospel  in  its  purity."  Our  government,  they  said  among 
themselves,  "is  the  happiest  and  wisest  this  day  in  the 
world." 

1651  to        The  war  between  England  and  Holland  hardly  dis- 
1654>      turbed  the  tranquillity  of  the  colonies.     The  western 


1655.      THE   UNITED   COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       359 

settlements,  which  would  have  suffered  extreme  misery 
from  a  combined  attack  of  the  Indians  and  the  Dutch,  were 
earnest  for  attempting  to  reduce  New  Amsterdam,  and  thua 
to  carry  the  boundary  of  New  England  to  the  Delaware. 
At  a  meeting  of  the  commissioners  at  Boston,  three  of  the 
four  united  colonies  declared  for  war ;  yet  the  dissentient 
Massachusetts  interposed  delay;  cited  the  opinions  of  its 
elders  that  "  it  was  most  agreeable  to  the  gospel  of  peace 
and  safest  for  the  colonies  to  forbear  the  use  of  the  sword  ; " 
and  at  last  refused  to  be  governed  by  the  decision.  The 
refusal  was  a  plain  breach  of  covenant,  and  led  to  earnest 
remonstrance  and  altercations.  The  nature  of  the  reserved 
rights  of  the  members  of  the  confederacy  became  the  sub- 
ject of  animated  discussion  ;  and  the  union  would  have  come 
to  an  end,  had  not  Massachusetts  receded,  though  tardily, 
from  her  interpretation  of  the  articles ;  but  in  the  mean  time 
the  occasion  for  war  with  Manhattan  had  passed  away. 

A  ship  which  had  a  short  passage  brought  word  1654. 
that  the  European  republics  had  composed  their 
strife,  before  the  English  fleet,  which  was  sent  against  New 
Netherland,  reached  America.  There  was  peace  between 
England  and  France ;  yet  the  English  forces,  turning  to  the 
north,  made  the  easy  conquest  of  Acadia,  an  acquisition 
which  no  remonstrance  or  complaint  could  induce  the  pro- 
tector to  restore. 

The  inhabitants  of  New  England  ever  enjoyed  the  con- 
fidence of  Cromwell.  They  were  satisfied  that  his  battles 
were  the  battles  of  the  Lord ;  and  "  the  spirits  of  the  breth- 
ren were  carried  forth  in  faithful  and  affectionate  prayers 
in  his  behalf."  Cromwell,  in  return,  confessed  to  them 
that  the  battle  of  Dunbar,  where  "  some,  who  were  godly," 
were  fought  into  their  graves,  was,  of  all  the  acts  of  his 
life,  that  on  which  his  mind  had  the  least  quiet ;  and  he 
declared  himself  "  truly  ready  to  serve  the  brethren  and 
the  churches  "  in  America.  The  declaration  was  sincere. 
The  people  of  New  England  were  ever  sure  that  Cromwell 
would  listen  to  their  requests,  and  would  take  an  interest 
in  the  details  of  their  condition.  He  left  them  inde- 
pendence, and  favored  their  trade.  When  in  1655  ies& 


360  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

his   arms  had   made  the  conquest  of  Jamaica,  he  offered 

them  the  island,  and  they  never  forfeited  his  regard. 

1655.       The  American  colonies  remember  the  years  of  his 

power  as  the  period  when  British   sovereignty  was 

for  them  free  from  rapacity,  intolerance,  and  oppression. 

He  may  be  called  the  benefactor  of  the  English  in  America ; 

for  in  his  time  they  enjoyed  unshackled  the  benevolence  of 

Providence,  freedom  of  industry,  of  commerce,  of  religion, 

and  of  government. 

Yet  the  Puritans  of  New  England  perceived  that  their 
security  rested  on  the  personal  character  of  the  protector, 
and  that  other  revolutions  were  ripening ;  they,  therefore, 
never  allowed  their  vigilance  to  be  lulled.  With  the  in- 
fluence of  the  elders,  the  spirit  of  independence  was  con- 
firmed ;  but  the  evils  ensued  that  are  in  some  measure 
inseparable  from  a  religious  establishment;  a  distinct  in- 
terest grew  up  under  the  system ;  the  severity  of  the  laws 
was  sharpened  against  infidelity  on  the  one  hand,  and  sec- 
tarianism on  the  other;  nor  can  it  be  denied,  nor  should 
it  be  concealed,  that  the  elders,  especially  Wilson  and 
Norton,  instigated  and  sustained  the  government  in  its 
worst  cruelties. 

Where  the  mind  is  left  free,  religion  can  never  have 
dangerous  enemies,  for  no  class  has  then  a  motive  to  at- 
tempt its  subversion ;  while  the  interests  of  society  demand 
a  foundation  for  the  principles  of  justice  and  benevolence. 
Atheism  is  a  folly  of  the  metaphysician,  not  the  folly  of 
human  nature.  Of  savage  life,  Roger  Williams  declared 
that  he  had  never  found  one  native  American  who  denied 
the  existence  of  a  God ;  in  civilized  life,  when  it  was  said 
of  the  court  of  Frederic,  that  the  place  of  king's  atheist 
was  vacant,  the  gibe  was  felt  as  the  most  biting  sarcasm. 
Infidelity  gains  the  victory,  when  it  wrestles  with  hy- 
pocrisy or  with  superstition,  but  never  when  its  antagonist 
is  reason.  Men  revolt  against  the  oppressions  of  supersti- 
tion, the  exactions  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  but  never  against 
religion  itself.  When  an  ecclesiastical  establishment,  under 
the  heaviest  penalties,  requires  universal  conformity,  some 
consciences  are  oppressed  and  wronged.  If  the  wrong  is 


1651.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       361 

excessive,  intellectual  servitude  is  followed  by  consequences 
analogous  to  those  which  ensue  on  the  civil  slavery  of  tlie 
people ;  the  mind,  as  it  bursts  its  fetters,  is  clouded  by  a 
sense  of  injury;  the  judgment  is  confused;  and,  in  the  zeal 
to  resist  a  tyranny,  passion  attempts  to  sweep  away  every 
form  of  religion.  Bigotry  commits  the  correlative  error, 
when  it  endeavors  to  control  opinion  by  positive  statutes, 
to  substitute  the  terrors  of  law  for  convincing  argument. 
It  is  a  crime  to  resist  truth  under  pretence  of  resisting  in- 
jurious power;  it  is  equally  a  crime  to  enslave  the  human 
understanding,  under  pretence  of  protecting  religion.  The 
reckless  mind,  rashly  hurrying  to  the  warfare  against  su- 
perstition, has  often,  though  by  mistake,  attacked  intelli- 
gence itself;  but  religion,  of  itself  alone,  never  had  an 
enemy,  except  indeed  as  there  have  been  theorists,  whose 
harmless  ingenuity  has  denied  all  distinction  between  right 
and  wrong,  between  justice  and  its  opposite.  Positive  en- 
actments against  irreligion,  like  positive  enactments  against 
fanaticism,  provoke  the  evil  which  they  were  designed  to 
prevent.  Danger  is  inviting.  If  left  to  himself,  he  that 
vilifies  the  foundations  of  morals  and  happiness  does  but 
publish  his  own  unworthiness.  A  public  prosecution  is  a 
mantle  to  cover  his  shame ;  for  to  suffer  for  opinion's 
sake  is  courageous;  and  courage  is  always  an  honorable 
quality. 

The  conscientious  austerity  of  the  colonists,  invigorated 
by  the  love  of  power,  led  to  a  course  of  legislation,  which, 
if  it  was  followed  by  the  melancholy  result  of  bloodshed, 
was  also  followed,  among  the  freemen  of  the  New  World, 
by  emancipation  from  bigotry,  achieved  without  any  of  the 
excesses  of  intolerant  infidelity.  The  inefficiency  of  fanatic 
laws  was  made  plain  by  the  resistance  of  a  still  more  stub- 
born fanaticism. 

Saltonstall  wrote  from  Europe  that,  but  for  their  severi- 
ties, the  people  of   Massachusetts  would   have   been  "  the 
eyes  of  God's  people  in  England."     The  consistent 
Sir  Henry  Vane  had  urged  that  "  the  oppugners  of       icsi. 
the   Congregational   way  should  not,  from  its  own 
principles  and   practice,  be  taught  to  root  it  out."     "  It 


862  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

were  better,"  he  added,  "not  to  censure  any  persons  for 
matters  of  a  religious  concernment."  The  elder  Winthrop 
had,  I  believe,  relented  before  his  death,  and  professed  him- 
self weary  of  banishing  heretics  ;  the  soul  of  the  younger 
Winthrop  was  incapable  of  harboring  a  thought  of  intole- 
rant cruelty ;  but  the  rugged  Dudley  was  not  mellowed  by 
old  age.  "  God  forbid,"  said  he,  "  our  love  for  the  truth 
should  be  grown  so  cold  that  we  should  tolerate  errors.  — 
I  die  no  libertine."  "  Better  tolerate  hypocrites  and  tares 
than  thorns  and  briers,"  affirmed  Cotton.  "Polypiety," 
echoed  Ward,  "  is  the  greatest  impiety  in  the  world.  To 
say  that  men  ought  to  have  liberty  of  conscience  is  im- 
pious ignorance."  "  Religion,"  said  the  melancholic  Nor- 
ton, "  admits  of  no  eccentric  motions."  But  the  people 
did  not  entirely  respond  to  these  extravagances,  into  which 
the  bigotry  of  personal  interest  betrayed  the  elders ;  and 
the  love  of  unity,  so  favorable  to  independence,  betrayed  the 
leading  men.  The  topic  of  the  power  of  the  civil  magis- 
trate in  religious  affairs  was  become  the  theme  of  perpet- 
ual discussion  ;  and  it  needed  all  the  force  of  established 
authority  to  sustain  the  doctrine  of  persecution.  Massachu- 
setts was  already  in  the  state  of  transition,  and  it  was  just 
before  expiring  that  bigotry,  with  convulsive  energy,  ex- 
hibited its  worst  aspect ;  just  as  the  waves  of  the  sea  are 
most  tumultuous  when  the  wind  is  subsiding  and  the  tem- 
pest is  yielding  to  a  calm. 

Anabaptism  was  to  the  establishment  a  dangerous  rival. 
When  Clarke,  the  pure  and  tolerant  Baptist  of  Rhode 
Island,  one  of  the  happy  few  who  have  connected  their 
name  with  the  liberty  and  happiness  of  a  commonwealth, 
began  to  preach  to  a  small  audience  in  Lynn,  he  was 
juiy^o.  seized  by  the  civil  officers.  Being  compelled  to  at- 
tend public  worship  with  the  congregation  of  the 
town,  he  expressed  his  aversion  by  a  harmless  indecorum, 
which  would  have  been  without  excuse,  had  his  presence 
been  voluntary.  He  and  his  companions  were  tried,  and 
condemned  to  pay  a  fine  of  twenty  or  thirty  pounds  ;  and 
Holmes,  who  refused  to  pay  his  fine,  was  whipped  unmerci- 
fully. 


1658.      THE   UNITED   COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       363 

Since  a  particular  form  of  worship  had  become  a  part  of 
the  civil  establishment,  irreligion  was  now  to  be  punished 
as  a  civil  offence.  The  state  was  a  model  of  Christ's  king- 
dom on  earth ;  treason  against  the  civil  government  was 
treason  against  Christ ;  and  reciprocally,  as  the  gospel  had 
the  right  paramount,  blasphemy,  or  what  a  jury  should  call 
blasphemy,  was  the  highest  offence  in  the  catalogue  of 
crimes.  To  deny  any  book  of  the  Old  or  New  Testament 
to  be  the  written  and  infallible  word  of  God  was  punishable 
by  fine  or  by  stripes,  and,  in  case  of  obstinacy,  by  exile  or 
death.  Absence  from  "  the  ministry  of  the  word "  was 
punished  by  a  fine. 

By  degrees  the  spirit  of  the  establishment  began       1053. 
to   subvert  the  fundamental   principles  of   Indepen- 
dency.    The   liberty  of   prophesying   was   refused,   except 
the  approbation  of  four  elders,  or  of  a  county  court,  had 
been  obtained.     Remonstrance  was  useless.     The  union  of 
church  and  state  was  fast  corrupting  both  :  it  mingled  base 
ambition  with  the  former ;  it  gave  a  false  direction 
to  the  legislation  of  the   latter.     And   in  1658  the       1058. 
general  court  claimed  for  itself,  for  the  council,  and 
for  any  two  organic  churches,  the  right  of  silencing  any 
person  who  was  not  as  yet  ordained.     The  creation  of  a 
national,  uncompromising  church  led  the  Congregationalists 
of  Massachusetts  to  the  indulgence  of  the  passions  which 
had  disgraced  their   English  persecutors ;   and  Laud  was 
justified  by  the  men  whom  he  had  wronged. 

But  if  the  Baptists  were  feared,  as  professing  doctrines 
tending  to  disorganize  society,  how  much  more  reason  was 
there  to  dread  such  emissaries  of  the  Quakers  as  appeared 
in  Massachusetts !  The  early  Quakers  in  New  England 
displayed  little  of  the  mild  philosophy,  the  statesman-like 
benevolence,  of  Penn ;  though  they  possessed  the  virtue  of 
passive  resistance  in  perfection.  Left  to  themselves,  they 
appeared  like  a  motley  tribe  of  persons,  half  fanatic,  half 
insane;  without  consideration,  and  without  definite  pur- 
poses. Persecution  called  them  forth  to  show  what  inten- 
sity of  will  can  dwell  in  the  depths  of  the  human  heart. 
They  were  like  those  weeds  which  are  unsightly  to  the 


364  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

eye,  and  which  only  when  trampled  give  out  precious  per- 
fumes. 

The  rise  of  "  the  people  called  Quakers  "  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  results  of  the  Protestant  revolution.  It 
was  a  consequence  of  the  aspiration  of  the  human  mind  for 
a  perfect  emancipation,  aftej  the  long  reign  of  bigotry  and 
superstition.  It  grew  up  with  men  who  were  impatient  at 
the  slow  progress  of  the  Reformation,  the  tardy  advances 
of  intellectual  liberty.  A  better  opportunity  will  offer  for 

explaining  its  influence  on  American  institutions.  It 
J6u?y.  was  'in  the  month  of  July,  1656,  that  two  of  its 

members,  Mary  Fisher  and  Ann  Austin,  arrived  in 
the  road  before  Boston.  There  was  as  yet  no  statute  re- 
specting Quakers  ;  but,  on  the  general  law  against  heresy, 
their  trunks  were  searched,  and  their  books  burnt  by  the 
hangman ;  "  though  no  token  could  be  found  on  them  but 
of  innocence,"  their  persons  were  examined  in  search  of 
signs  of  witchcraft;  and,  after  five  weeks'  close  imprison- 
ment, they  were  thrust  out  of  the  jurisdiction.  Eight 
others  were,  during  the  year,  sent  back  to  England.  The 
rebuke  enlarged  the  ambition  of  Mary  Fisher ;  she  repaired 
alone  to  Adrianople,  and  delivered  a  message  to  the  Grand 
Sultan.  The  Turks  thought  her  crazed,  and  she  passed 
through  their  army  "  without  hurt  or  scoff." 

Yet  the  next  year,  although  a  special  law  now 
em'  prohibited  the  introduction  of  Quakers,  Mary  Dyar, 
an  Antinomian  exile,  and  Ann  Burden,  came  into  the  col- 
ony ;  the  former  was  claimed  by  her  husband,  and  taken 
to  Rhode  Island;  the  latter  was  sent  to  England.  A 
woman  who  had  come  all  the  way  from  London,  to  warn 
the  magistrates  against  persecution,  was  whipped  with 
twenty  stripes.  Some,  who  had  been  banished,  came  a 
second  time;  they  were  imprisoned,  whipped,  and  once 
more  sent  away,  under  penalty  of  further  punishment,  if 
they  returned  again.  A  fine  was  imposed  on  such  as 
should  entertain  any  "of  the  accursed  sect;"  and  a  Qua- 
ker, after  the  first  conviction,  was  to  lose  one  ear,  after  the 
second  another,  after  the  third  to  have  the  tongue  bored  with 
a  red-hot  iron.  It  was  but  for  a  very  short  time  that  the 


1658.      THE   UNITED   COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       365 

menace  of  these  enormities  found  place  in  the  statute-book. 
The  colony  was  so  ashamed  of  the  order  for  mutilation  that 
it  was  soon  repealed,  and  was  never  printed.  But  this 
legislation  was  fruitful  of  results.  Quakers  swarmed  where 
they  were  feared.  They  came  expressly  because 
they  were  not  welcome,  and  threats  were  construed  jj^®; 
as  invitations.  A  penalty  of  ten  shillings  was  im- 
posed on  every  person  for  being  present  at  a  Quaker  meet- 
ing, and  of  five  pounds  for  speaking  at  such  a  meeting.  In 
the  execution  of  the  laws,  the  pride  of  consistency  involved 
the  magistrates  in  acts  of  extreme  cruelty. 

The  government  of  Massachusetts  at  length  resolved  to 
follow  the  advice  of  the  commissioners  for  the  United 
Colonies,  from  which  the  younger  Winthrop  alone  had  dis- 
sented. Willing  that  the  Quakers  should  live  in  peace  in 
any  other  part  of  the  wide  world,  yet  desiring  to  deter 
them  effectually  from  coming  within  its  jurisdiction,  the 
general  court,  after  much  resistance,  and  by  a  majority  of 
but  a  single  vote,  banished  them  on  pain  of  death.  "  For 
the  security  of  the  flock,"  said  Norton,  "we  pen  up  the 
wolf  ;  but  a  door  is  purposely  left  open  whereby  he  may 
depart  at  his  pleasure."  Vain  legislation  !  and  frivolous 
apology !  The  soul,  by  its  freedom  and  immortality,  pre- 
serves its  convictions  or  its  frenzies  even  amidst  the  threat 
of  death.  - 

It  has  been  attempted  to  excuse  the  atrocity  of  the  law, 
because  the  Quakers  avowed  principles  that  seemed  subver- 
sive of  social  order.  Any  government  might,  on  the  same 
grounds,  find  in  its  unreasonable  fears  an  excuse  for  its 
cruelties.  The  argument  justifies  the  expulsion  of  the 
Moors  from  Spain,  of  the  Huguenots  from  France;  and' 
it  forms  a  complete  apology  for  Laud,  who  was  honest  in 
his  bigotry,  persecuting  the  Puritans  with  the  same  good 
faith  with  which  he  recorded  his  dreams.  The  fears  of  one 
class  of  men  are  not  the  measure  of  the  rights  of  another. 

It  is  said  the  Quakers  themselves  rushed  on  the  sword, 
and  were  suicides.  If  it  were  so,  the  men  who  held  the 
sword  were  accessories  to  the  crime. 

It   is  true  that  some  of  the  Quakers  were  extravagant 


366  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

and  foolish  ;  they  cried  out  from  the  windows  at  the  mag- 
istrates and  ministers  that  passed  by,  and  mocked  the  civil 
and  religious  institutions  of  the  country.  They  riotously 
interrupted  public  worship  ;  and  women,  forgetting 
1658.  the  decorum  of  their  sex,  and  claiming  a  divine  origin 
for  their  absurd  caprices,  smeared  their  faces,  and 
even  went  naked  through  the  streets.  Indecency,  however, 
is  best  punished  by  slight  chastisements.  The  house  of 
Folly  has  perpetual  succession ;  yet,  numerous  as  is  the 
progeny,  each  individual  of  the  family  is  very  short-lived, 
and  dies  the  sooner  where  its  extravagance  is  excessive. 
A  fault  against  manners  may  not  be  punished  by  a  crime 
against  nature. 

The  act  itself  admits  of  no  defence ;  the  actors  can  plead 
no  other  justification  than  delusion.  Prohibiting  the  arrival 
of  Quakers  was  not  persecution ;  and  banishment  is  a  term 
hardly  to  be  used  of  one  who  has  not  acquired  a  home. 
When  a  pauper  is  sent  to  his  native  town,  he  is  not  called 
an  exile.  A  ship  from  abroad,  which  should  enter  the  har- 
bor of  Marseilles  against  the  order  of  the  health-officer, 
would  be  sunk  by  the  guns  of  the  fort.  The  government 
of  Massachusetts  applied  similar  quarantine  rules  to  the 
morals  of  the  colony,  and  would  as  little  tolerate  what 
seemed  a  ruinous  heresy  as  the  French  would  tolerate 
the  plague :  I  do  not  plead  the  analogy ;  the  cases  are  as 
widely  different  as  the  world  of  action  and  the  world  of 
thought ;  I  desire  only  to  relate  facts  with  precision.  The 
ship  suspected  of  infection  might  sail  for  another  port ;  and 
the  Quaker,  if  he  came  once,  was  sent  away  ;  if  he  came 
again,  was  sentenced  to  death,  and  then  might  still  quit  the 
jurisdiction  on  a  promise  of  returning  no  more.  Servetua 
did  but  desire  leave  to  continue  his  journey.  The  inquisi- 
tion hearkened  to  secret  whispers  for  grounds  of  accusa- 
tion ;  the  magistrates  of  Massachusetts  left  all  in  peace  but 
the  noisy  brawlers,  and  left  to  them  the  opportunity  of  es- 
cape. For  four  centuries,  Europe  had  maintained  that  heresy 
should  be  punished  by  death.  In  Spain,  more  persons  have 
been  burnt  for  their  opinions  than  Massachusetts  then  con- 
tained inhabitants.  Under  Charles  V.,  in  the  Netherlands 


1659.      THE   UNITED  COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       367 

alone,  the  number  of  those  who  were  hanged,  beheaded, 
buried  alive,  or  burnt,  for  religious  opinion,  was  fifty 
thousand,  says  Father  Paul ;  the  whole  carnage,  says  Gro- 
tius,  included  not  less  than  one  hundred  thousand ;  and 
skepticism  has  not  reduced  the  tale  below  twenty  thousand. 
The  four,  of  whose  death  New  England  was  guilty,  fell 
victims  rather  to  the  contest  of  will  than  to  the  opinion  that 
Quakerism  was  a  capital  crime. 

Of  four  persons  ordered  to  depart  the  jurisdiction  1059. 
on  pain  of  death,  Mary  Dyar,  a  firm  disciple  of  Ann  Sept> 
Hutchinson,  whose  exile  she  had  shared,  and  Nicholas 
Davis  obeyed.  Marmaduke  Stephenson  and  William  Rob- 
inson had  come  on  purpose  to  offer  their  lives ;  instead  of 
departing,  they  went  from  place  to  place  "  to  build 
up  their  friends  in  the  faith."  In  October,  Mary  Dyar  Oct. 
returned.  Thus  there  were  three  persons  arraigned 
on  the  sanguinary  law.  Robinson  pleaded  in  his  defence 
the  special  message  and  command  of  God.  "Blessed  be 
God,  who  calls  me  to  testify  against  wicked  and  unjust 
men."  Stephenson  refused  to  speak  till  sentence  had  been 
pronounced ;  and  then  he  imprecated  a  curse  on  his  judges. 
Mary  Dyar  exclaimed  :  "  The  will  of  the  Lord  be  done  ; " 
and  returned  to  the  prison  "full  of  joy."  From  the  jail 
she  wrote  a  remonstrance.  "  Were  ever  such  laws  heard 
of  among  a  people  that  profess  Christ  come  in  the  flesh? 
Have  you  no  other  weapons  but  such  laws  to  fight  against, 
spiritual  wickedness  withal,  as  you  call  it  ?  Woe  is  me  for 
you.  Ye  are  disobedient  and  deceived.  Let  my  re- 
quest be  as  Esther's  to  Ahasuerus.  You  will  not  Oct.  27. 
repent  that  you  were  kept  from  shedding  blood, 
though  it  was  by  a  woman."  The  three  were  led  forth  to 
execution.  "  I  die  for  Christ,"  said  Robinson  ;  "  We  suffer 
not  as  evil-doers,  but  for  conscience'  sake,"  were  the  last 
words  of  his  companion.  Mary  Dyar  was  reprieved ;  yet 
not  till  the  rope  had  been  fastened  round  her  neck,  and  she 
had  prepared  herself  for  death.  Transported  with  enthusi- 
asm, she  exclaimed  :  "  Let  me  suffer  as  my  brethren,  unless 
you  will  annul  your  wicked  law."  She  was  conveyed  out 
of  the  colony ;  but,  soon  returning,  she  also  was  hanged  on 


368  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

Boston  common.  "  We  desired  their  lives  absent,  rather 
than  their  deaths  present,"  was  the  miserable  apology  for 
these  proceedings. 

These  cruelties  excited  great  discontent.  Yet  "William 
Leddra  was  put  upon  trial  for  the  same  causes.  While  the 
trial  was  proceeding,  Wenlock  Christison,  already  banished 
on  pain  of  death,  entered  the  court,  and  struck  dismay  into 
the  judges,  who  found  their  severities  ineffectual.  Leddra 
was  desired  to  accept  his  life,  on  condition  of  promising  to 
come  no  more  within  the  jurisdiction.  He  refused,  and  was 
hanged. 

Christison  met  his  persecutors  with  undaunted  courage. 
"  By  what  law,"  he  demanded,  "  will  ye  put  me  to  death  ?  " 
"  We  have  a  law,"  it  was  answered,  "  and  by  it  you  are  to 
die."  "  So  said  the  Jews  to  Christ.  But  who  empowered 
you  to  make  that  law  ? "  "  We  have  a  patent,  and  may 
make  our  own  laws."  "  Can  you  make  laws  repugnant  to 
those  of  England  ?  "  "  No."  "  Then  you  are  gone  beyond 
your  bounds.  Your  heart  is  as  rotten  towards  the  king  as 
towards  God.  I  demand  to  be  tried  by  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land, and  there  is  no  law  there  to  hang  Quakers."  "  The 
English  banish  Jesuits  on  pain  of  death ;  and  with  equal 
justice  we  may  banish  Qviakers."  The  jury  returned  a 
verdict  of  guilty.  Wenlock  replied :  "  I  deny  all  guilt ; 
my  conscience  is  clear  before  God."  The  magistrates  were 
divided  in  pronouncing  sentence ;  the  vote  was  put  a 
second  time,  and  there  appeared  a  majority  for  the  doom 

of  death.  "  What  do  you  gain,"  cried  Christison, 
less.  "  by  taking  Quakers'  lives  ?  For  the  last  man  that 

ye  put  to  death,  here  are  five  come  in  his  room.  If 
ye  have  power  to  take  my  life,  God  can  raise  up  ten  of  his 
servants  in  my  stead." 

The  voice  of  the  people  had  always  been  averse  to  blood- 
shed ;  the  magistrates,  infatuated  for  a  season,  became  con- 
vinced of  their  error ;  Wenlock,  with  twenty-seven  of  his 
friends,  was  discharged  from  prison ;  and  the  doctrine  of 
toleration,  with  the  pledges  of  peace,  hovered  like  the  dove 
at  the  window  of  the  ark,  waiting  to  be  received  into  its 
rightful  refuge. 


1645.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       369 

The  victims  of  intolerance  met  death  bravely ;  they  would 
be  entitled  to  perpetual  honor,  were  it  not  that  their  own 
extravagances  occasioned  the  foul  enactment,  to  repeal 
which  they  laid  down  their  lives.  Far  from  introducing 
religious  charity,  their  conduct  irritated  the  government  to 
pass  the  laws  of  which  they  were  the  victims ;  and  causes 
were  already  in  action  which  were  fast  substituting 
the  charity  of  intelligence  for  bigotry.  It  was  ever  1642. 
the  custom,  and  it  soon  became  the  law,  in  Puritan 
New  England,  that  "  none  of  the  brethren  shall  suffer  so 
much  barbarism  in  their  families  as  not  to  teach  their  chil- 
dren and  apprentices  so  much  learning  as  may  enable  them 
perfectly  to  read  the  English  tongue."  "  To  the  end  that 
learning  may  not  be  buried  in  the  graves  of  our  fore- 
fathers," in  1647  it  was  ordered  in  all  the  Puritan  1647. 
colonies  "  that  every  township,  after  the  Lord  hath 
increased  them  to  the  number  of  fifty  householders,  shall 
appoint  one  to  teach  all  children  to  read  and  write;  and 
where  any  town  shall  increase  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred  families,  they  shall  set  up  a  grammar  school ;  the 
masters  thereof  being  able  to  instruct  youth  so  far  as  they 
may  be  fitted  for  the  university."  The  press  began  its 
work  in  1639.  "  When  New  England  was  poor,  and  they 
were  but  few  in  number,  there  was  a  spirit  to  encourage 
learning."  The  infant  institution  of  Harvard  College  was 
a  favorite  from  its  beginning  ;  Connecticut  and  Plymouth, 
and  the  tawns  in  the  east,  often  contributed  offerings  to 
promote  the  success  of  that  "  school  of  the  prophets,"  the 
morning  star  of  science  in  the  western  wilderness ;  the  gift 
of  the  rent  of  a  ferry  was  a  proof  of  the  care  of  the 
state ;  and  once,  at  least,  every  family  in  each  of  the  1645. 
colonies  gave  to  the  college  at  Cambridge  twelve- 
pence,  or  a  peck  of  corn,  or  its  value  in  unadulterated  wam- 
pum peag ;  while  the  magistrates  and  wealthier  men  were 
profuse  in  their  liberality.  The  college,  in  return,  assisted 
in  forming  the  early  character  of  the  country.  In  this,  at 
least,  it  can  never  have  a  rival.  In  these  measures,  espe- 
cially in  the  laws  establishing  common  schools,  lies  the 
secret  of  the  success  and  character  of  New  England.  Every 
VOL.  i.  24 


370  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

child,  as  it  was  born  into  the  world,  was  lifted  from  the 
earth  by  the  genius  of  the  country,  and,  in  the  statutes  of 
the  land,  received,  as  its  birthright,  a  pledge  of  the  public 
care  for  its  morals  and  its  mind. 

There  are  some  who  love  to  enumerate  the  singularities 
of  the  early  Puritans.  They  were  opposed  to  wigs  ;  they 
could  preach  against  veils  ;  they  denounced  long  hair  ;  they 
disliked  the  cross  in  the  banner,  as  much  as  the  people  of 
Paris  disliked  the  lilies  of  the  Bourbons.  They  would  not 
allow  Christmas  to  be  kept  sacred  ;  they  called  neither 
months,  nor  days,  nor  seasons,  nor  churches,  nor  inns,  by 
the  names  common  in  England ;  they  revived  Scripture 
names  at  christenings.  The  grave  Romans  legislated  on 
the  costume  of  men,  and  their  senate  could  even  stoop  to 
interfere  with  the  triumphs  of  the  sex  to  which  civic  honors 
are  denied :  the  fathers  of  New  England  prohibited  frivolous 
fashions  in  their  own  dress ;  and  their  austerity,  checking 
extravagance  even  in  woman,  frowned  on  her  hoods  of  silk 
and  her  scarfs  of  tiffany,  extended  the  length  of  her  sleeve 
to  the  wrist,  and  limited  its  greatest  width  to  half  an  ell. 
The  Puritans  were  formal  and  precise  in  their  manners  ; 
singular  in  the  forms  of  their  legislation  ;  rigid  in  the 
observance  of  their  principles.  Every  topic  of  the  day 
found  a  place  in  their  extemporaneous  prayers,  and  infused 
a  stirring  interest  into  their  long  and  frequent  sermons. 
The  courts  of  Massachusetts  respected  in  practice  the  code 
of  Moses ;  the  island  of  Rhode  Island  followed  for  a  year 
or  two  Jewish  precedents  ;  in  New  Haven,  the  members 
of  the  constituent  committee  were  called  the  seven  pillars, 
hewn  out  for  the  house  of  wisdom.  But  these  are  only  the 
outward  forms,  which  gave  to  the  new  sect  its  marked 
exterior.  If  from  the  outside  peculiarities,  which  so  easily 
excite  the  sneer  of  the  superficial  observer,  we  look  to  the 
genius  of  the  sect  itself,  Puritanism  was  Religion  strug- 
gling for  the  People ;  a  war  against  tyranny  and  supersti- 
tion. "  Its  absurdities,"  says  one  of  its  scoffers,  "  were  the 
shelter  for  the  noble  principles  of  liberty."  It  was  its  office 
to  engraft  the  new  institutions  of  popular  energy  upon  the 
old  European  system  of  a  feudal  aristocracy  and  popular 


CHAP.  X.   THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    371 

servitude ;  the  good  was  permanent ;  the  outward  emblems, 
which  were  the  signs  of  the  party,  were  of  transient  dura- 
tion, like  the  clay  and  ligaments  which  hold  the  graft  in 
its  place,  and  are  brushed  away  as  soon  as  the  scion  is  firmly 
united. 

The  principles  of  Puritanism  proclaimed  the  civil  mag- 
istrate subordinate  to  the  authority  of  religion  ;  and  its 
haughtiness  in  this  respect  has  been  compared  to  "  the 
infatuated  arrogance  "  of  a  Roman  pontiff.  In  the  firmness 
with  which  the  principle  was  asserted,  the  Puritans  did  not 
yield  to  the  Catholics ;  and,  if  the  will  of  God  is  the  crite- 
rion of  justice,  both  were,  in  one  sense,  in  the  right.  The 
qiiestion  arises,  Who  shall  be  the  interpreter  of  that  will  ? 
In  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  the  office  was  claimed  by 
the  infallible  pontiff,  who,  as  the  self-constituted  guardian 
of  the  oppressed,  insisted  on  the  power  of  dethroning  kings, 
repealing  laws,  and  subverting  dynasties.  The  principle 
thus  asserted  could  not  but  become  subservient  to  the 
temporal  ambition  of  the  clergy.  Puritanism  conceded  no 
such  power  to  its  spiritual  guides  ;  the  church  existed  inde- 
pendent of  its  pastor,  who  owed  his  office  to  its  free  choice  ; 
the  will  of  the  majority  was  its  law;  and  each  one  of  the 
brethren  possessed  equal  rights  with  the  elders.  The  right, 
exercised  by  each  congregation,  of  electing  its  own  ministers 
was  in  itself  a  moral  revolution ;  religion  was  now  with  the 
people,  not  over  the  people.  Puritanism  exalted  the  laity. 
Every  individual  who  had  experienced  the  raptures  of  de- 
votion, every  believer,  who  in  moments  of  ecstasy  had  felt 
the  assurance  of  the  favor  of  God,  was  in  his  own  eyes  a 
consecrated  person,  chosen  to  do  the  noblest  and  godliest 
deeds.  For  him  the  wonderful  counsels  of  the  Almighty  had 
appointed  a  Saviour ;  for  him  the  laws  of  nature  had  been 
suspended  and  controlled,  the  heavens  had  opened,  earth  had 
quaked,  the  sun  had  veiled  his  face,  and  Christ  had  died  and 
had  risen  again  ;  for  him  prophets  and  apostles  had  revealed 
to  the  world  the  oracles  and  the  will  of  God.  Before  heaven 
he  prostrated  himself  in  the  dust ;  looking  out  upon  man- 
kind, how  could  he  but  respect  himself,  whom  God  had 
chosen  and  redeemed  ?  He  cherished  hope ;  he  possessed 


372  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

faith ;  as  he  walked  the  earth,  his  heart  was  in  the  skies. 
Angels  hovered  round  his  path,  charged  to  minister  to  his 
soul ;  spirits  of  darkness  vainly  leagued  together  to  tempt 
him  from  his  allegiance.  His  burning  piety  could  use  no 
liturgy ;  his  penitence  revealed  itself  to  no  confessor.  He 
knew  no  superior  in  holiness.  He  could  as  little  become 
the  slave  of  a  priestcraft  as  of  a  despot.  He  was  himself  a 
judge  of  the  orthodoxy  of  the  elders ;  and  if  he  feared  the 
invisible  powers  of  the  air,  of  darkness,  and  of  hell,  he  feared 
nothing  on  earth.  Puritanism  constituted  not  the  Christian 
clergy,  but  the  Christian  people,  the  interpreter  of  the  divine 
will.  The  voice  of  the  majority  was  the  voice  of  God;  and 
the  issue  of  Puritanism  was  popular  sovereignty. 

The  effects  of  Puritanism  display  its  character  still  more 
distinctly.  Ecclesiastical  tyranny  is  of  all  kinds  the  worst ; 
its  fruits  are  cowardice,  idleness,  ignorance,  and  poverty : 
Puritanism  was  a  life-giving  spirit ;  activity,  thrift,  intelli- 
gence, followed  in  its  train  ;  and,  as  for  courage,  a  coward 
and  a  Puritan  never  went  together. 

It  was  in  self-defence  that  Puritanism  in  America  began 
those  transient  persecutions  which  shall  find  in  me  no 
apologist ;  and  which  yet  were  no  more  than  a  train  of 
mists,  hovering,  of  an  autumn  morning,  over  the  channel 
of  a  fine  river,  that  diffused  freshness  and  fertility  wherever 
it  wound.  The  people  did  not  attempt  to  convert  others, 
but  to  protect  themselves  ;  they  never  punished  opinion  as 
such  ;  they  never  attempted  to  torture  or  terrify  men  into 
orthodoxy.  The  history  of  religious  persecution  in  New 
England  is  simply  this :  the  Puritans  established  a  govern- 
ment in  America  such  as  the  laws  of  natural  justice  war- 
ranted, and  such  as  the  statutes  and  common  law  of  Eng- 
land did  not  warrant ;  and  that  was  done  by  men  who  still 
acknowledged  a  limited  allegiance  to  the  parent  state.  The 
Episcopalians  had  declared  themselves  the  enemies  of  the 
party,  and  waged  against  it  a  war  of  extermination ;  Puri- 
tanism excluded  them  from  its  asylum.  Roger  Williams, 
the  apostle  of  "  soul-liberty,"  weakened  civil  independence 
by  impairing  its  unity ;  and  he  was  expelled,  even  though 
Massachusetts  bore  good  testimony  to  his  spotless  virtues. 


CHAP.  X.    THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    873 

"Wheelwright  and  his  friends,  in  their  zeal  for  liberty  of 
speech,  were  charged  with  forgetting  their  duty  as  citizens, 
and  they  also  were  exiled.  The  Anabaptist,  who  could 
not  be  relied  upon  as  an  ally,  was  guarded  as  a  foe.  The 
Quakers  denounced  the  worship  of  New  England  as  an 
abomination,  and  its  government  as  treason  ;  and  they 
were  excluded  on  pain  of  death.  The  fanatic  for  Calvin- 
ism was  a  fanatic  for  liberty ;  and,  in  the  moral  warfare  for 
freedom,  his  creed  was  his  support  and  his  most  faithful 
ally  in  the  battle. 

For  "New  England  was  a  religious  plantation,  not  a 
plantation  for  trade.  The  profession  of  the  purity  of 
doctrine,  worship,  and  discipline,  was  written  on  her  fore- 
head." "  We  all,"  says  the  confederacy  in  one  of  the  two 
oldest  of  American  written  constitutions,  "  came  into  these 
parts  of  America  to  enjoy  the  liberties  of  the  gospel  in  purity 
and  peace."  "  He  that  made  religion  as  twelve,  and  the 
world  as  thirteen,  had  not  the  spirit  of  a  true  New  England 
man."  Religion  was  the  object  of  the  emigrants;  it  was 
also  their  consolation.  With  this  the  wounds  of  the  outcast 
were  healed,  and  the  tears  of  exile  sweetened.  "  New  Eng- 
land was  the  colony  of  conscience." 

Of  all  contemporary  sects,  the  Puritans  were  the  most 
free  from  credulity,  and,  in  their  zeal  for  reform,  pushed 
their  regulations  to  what  some  would  consider  a  skeptical 
extreme.  So  many  superstitions  had  been  bundled  up 
with  every  venerable  institution  of  Europe,  that  ages  have 
not  yet  dislodged  them  all.  The  Puritans  at  once  eman- 
cipated themselves  from  a  crowd  of  observances.  They 
established  a  worship  purely  spiritual.  They  stood  in 
prayer.  To  them  the  elements  remained  but  wine  and 
bread,  and  in  communing  they  would  not  kneel.  They 
invoked  no  saints ;  they  raised  no  altar ;  they  adored  no 
crucifix ;  they  kissed  no  book ;  they  asked  no  absolution  ; 
they  paid  no  tithes ;  they  saw  in  the  priest  nothing  more 
than  a  man ;  ordination  was  no  more  than  an  approbation 
of  the  officer,  which  might  be  expressed  by  the  brethren, 
as  well  as  by  other  ministers ;  the  church,  as  a  place  of 
worship,  was  to  them  but  a  meeting-house ;  they  dug  no 


374  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X 

graves  in  consecrated  earth ;  unlike  their  posterity,  they 
married  without  a  minister,  and  buried  the  dead  without 
a  prayer.  Witchcraft  had  not  been  made  the  subject  of 
skeptical  consideration  ;  and,  in  the  years  in  which  Scotland 
sacrificed  hecatombs  to  the  delusion,  there  were  three  victims 
in  New  England.  Dark  crimes,  that  seemed  without  a 
motive,  may  have  been  pursued  under  that  name ;  I  find 
one  record  of  a  trial  for  witchcraft,  where  the  prisoner  was 
proved  a  murderess. 

On  every  subject  but  religion,  the  mildness  of  Puritan 
legislation  corresponded  to  the  popular  character  of  Puritan 
doctrines.  Hardly  a  nation  of  Europe  has  as  yet  made  its 
criminal  law  so  humane  as  that  of  early  New  England.  A 
crowd  of  offences  was  at  one  sweep  brushed  from  the  cata- 
logue of  capital  crimes.  The  idea  was  never  received  that 
the  forfeiture  of  life  may  be  demanded  for  the  protection 
of  property;  the  punishment  for  theft,  for  burglary,  and 
highway  robbery,  was  far  more  mild  than  the  penalties 
imposed  even  by  modern  American  legislation.  The  habits 
of  the  young  promoted  real  chastity.  The  sexes  lived  in 
social  intimacy,  and  were  more  pure  than  the  recluse.  Of 
divorce  I  have  found  no  example ;  yet  a  clause  in  one  of 
the  statutes  recognises  the  possibility  of  such  an  event. 
Divorce  from  bed  and  board,  the  separate  maintenance 
without  the  dissolution  of  the  marriage  contract,  —  an 
anomaly  in  Protestant  legislation,  that  punishes  the  inno- 
cent more  than  the  guilty,  —  was  abhorrent  from  their  prin- 
ciples. The  sanctity  of  the  marriage-bed  was  protected  by 
the  penalty  of  death;  a  penalty  which  was  inexorably 
enforced  against  the  adulteress  and  her  paramour.  If  in 
this  respect  the  laws  were  more  severe,  in  another  they 
were  more  lenient  than  modern  manners  approve.  The 
girl  whom  youth  and  affection  and  the  promise  of  marriage 
betrayed  into  weakness  was  censured,  pitied,  and  forgiven  ; 
the  law  compelled  the  seducer  of  innocence  to  marry  the 
person  who  had  imposed  every  obligation  by  the  concession 
of  every  right.  The  law  implies  an  extremely  pure  com- 
munity; in  no  other  could  it  have  found  a  place  in  the 
statute-book. 


CHAP.X.  THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.    375 

The  benevolence  of  the  Puritans  appears  from  other 
examples.  Their  thoughts  were  always  fixed  on  posterity. 
Domestic  discipline  was  highly  valued ;  the  law  was  severe 
against  the  undutiful  child  ;  it  was  also  severe  against  a 
faithless  parent.  Till  1654,  the  laws  did  not  permit  any 
man's  person  to  be  kept  in  prison  for  debt,  except  when  there 
was  an  appearance  of  some  estate  which  the  debtor  would 
not  produce.  Even  the  brute  creation  was  not  forgotten ; 
and  cruelty  towards  animals  was  a  civil  offence.  The  sym- 
pathies of  the  colonists  were  wide  ;  a  regard  for  Protestant 
Germany  is  as  old  as  emigration ;  and  during  the  thirty 
years'  war  the  people  of  New  England  held  fasts  and 
offered  prayers  for  the  success  of  their  German  brethren. 

The  first  years  of  the  residence  of  Puritans  in  America 
were  years  of  great  hardship  and  affliction ;  this  short  sea- 
son of  distress  was  promptly  followed  by  abundance  and 
happiness.  The  people  struck  root  in  the  soil  immediately. 
They  were,  from  the  first,  industrious,  enterprising,  and 
frugal ;  and  affluence  followed  of  course.  When  persecution 
ceased  in  England,  there  were  already  in  New  England 
"thousands  who  would  not  change  their  place  for  any 
other  in  the  world ; "  and  they  were  tempted  in  vain  with 
invitations  to  the  Bahama  Isles,  to  Ireland,  to  Jamaica,  to 
Trinidad.  The  purity  of  morals  completes  the  picture  of 
colonial  felicity.  "As  Ireland  will  not  brook  venomous 
beasts,  so  will  not  that  land  vile  livers."  One  might  dwell 
there  "  from  year  to  year,  and  not  see  a  drunkard,  or  hear 
an  oath,  or  meet  a  beggar."  As  a  consequence,  the  average 
duration  of  life  in  New  England,  compared  with  Europe 
of  that  day,  was  doubled ;  and,  of  all  who  were  born  into 
the  world,  more  than  two  in  ten,  full  four  in  nineteen, 
attained  the  age  of  seventy.  Of  those  who  lived  beyond 
ninety,  the  proportion,  as  compared  with  European  tables 
of  longevity,  was  still  more  remarkable. 

I  have  dwelt  the  longer  on  the  character  of  the  early 
Puritans  of  New  England,  for  they  were  the  parents  of  one 
third  the  whole  white  population  of  the  United  States  as  it 
was  in  1834.  Within  the  first  fifteen  years,  —  and  there 
was  never  afterwards  any  considerable  increase  from  Eng- 


376  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  X. 

land, — we  have  seen  that  there  came  over  twenty-one 
thousand  two  hundred  persons,  or  four  thousand  families. 
Their  descendants  were  in  1834  not  far  from  four  millions. 
Each  family  had  multiplied  on  the  average  to  one  thousand 
souls.  To  New  York  and  Ohio,  where  they  then  consti- 
tuted half  the  population,  they  carried  the  Puritan  system 
of  free  schools  ;  and  their  example  is  spreading  it  through 
the  civilized  world. 

Historians  have  loved  to  eulogize  the  manners  and  vir- 
tues, the  glory  and  the  benefits,  of  chivalry.  Puritanism 
accomplished  for  mankind  far  more.  If  it  had  the  secta- 
rian crime  of  intolerance,  chivalry  had  the  vices  of  disso- 
luteness. The  knights  were  brave  from  gallantry  of  spirit ; 
the  Puritans,  from  the  fear  of  God.  The  knights  obeyed 
the  law  of  honor;  the  Puritans  hearkened  to  the  voice  of 
duty.  The  knights  were  proud  of  loyalty;  the  Puritans, 
of  liberty.  The  knights  did  homage  to  monarchs,  in  whose 
smile  they  beheld  honor,  whose  rebuke  was  the  wound  of 
disgrace ;  the  Puritans,  disdaining  ceremony,  would  not 
bow  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  nor  bend  the  knee  to  the  King 
of  kings.  Chivalry  delighted  in  outward  show,  favored 
pleasure,  multiplied  amusements,  and  degraded  the  human 
race  by  an  exclusive  respect  for  the  privileged  classes  ; 
Puritanism  bridled  the  passions,  commanded  the  virtues 
of  self-denial,  and  rescued  the  name  of  man  from  dishonor. 
The  former  valued  courtesy ;  the  latter,  justice.  The  for- 
mer adorned  society  by  graceful  refinements  ;  the  latter 
founded  national  grandeur  on  universal  education.  The 
institutions  of  chivalry  were  subverted  by  the  gradually 
increasing  weight  and  knowledge  and  opulence  of  the  in- 
dustrious classes ;  the  Puritans,  rallying  upon  those  classes., 
planted  in  their  hearts  the  undying  principles  of  democratic 
liberty. 

The  golden  age  of  Puritanism  was  passing  away. 
Time  was  silently  softening  its  asperities,  and  the 
revolutions  of  England  prepared  an  era  in  its  fortunes. 
Massachusetts  never  acknowledged  Richard  Cromwell ;  it 
read  in  the  aspect  of  parties  the  impending  restoration. 
The  protector  had  left  the  benefits  of  self-government  and 


1060.      THE  UNITED  COLONIES  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.       377 

the  freedom  of  commerce  to  New  England  and  to  Virginia ; 
and  Maryland,  by  the  act  of  her  inhabitants,  was  just 
beginning  to  share  in  the  same  advantages.     Would       i860, 
the  dynasty  of  the  Stuarts  deal  benevolently  with 
the  colonies  ?    Would  it  imitate  the  magnanimity  of  Crom- 
well, and  suffer  the  staple  of  the  south  still  to  seek  its 
market  freely  throughout  the  world  ?     Could  the  returning 
monarch  forgive  the  friends  of  the  Puritans  in  England  ? 
Would  he  show  favor  to  the  institutions  that  the  outcasts 
had  reared  beyond  the  Atlantic  ? 


378  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XL 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  STUAETS. 

THE  principles  that  should  prevail  in  the  administration 
of  the  American  colonies  always  formed  a  dividing 
i860        question  between  the  political  parties  in  England. 
The  restoration  of   the  legitimate  dynasty  was   at- 
tended by  a  corresponding  change  in  colonial  policy. 

The  revolution,  which  was  now  come  to  its  end,  had 
been  in  its  origin  a  democratic  revolution,  and  had  ap- 
parently succeeded  in  none  of  its  ultimate  purposes.  In 
the  gradual  progress  of  civilization,  the  power  of  the  feudal 
aristocracy  had  been  broken  by  the  increased  authority  of 
the  monarch ;  and  the  people,  beginning  to  claim  the  lead 
in  the  progress  of  humanity,  prepared  to  contend  for  equal- 
ity against  privilege,  as  well  as  for  freedom  against  prerog- 
ative. The  contest  failed  for  a  season,  because  too  much 
was  at  once  attempted.  Immediate  emancipation  from  the 
decaying  institutions  of  the  past  was  impossible ;  hereditary 
inequalities  were  themselves  endeared  to  the  nation,  from 
a  love  for  the  beneficent  institutions  with  which  close 
union  had  identified  them ;  the  mass  of  the  people  was 
still  buried  in  the  inactivity  of  listless  ignorance ;  even  for 
the  strongest  minds,  public  expei-ience  had  not  yet  gen- 
erated the  principles  by  which  a  reconstruction  of  the 
government  on  a  popular  basis  could  have  been  safely 
undertaken  ;  and  thus  the  democratic  revolution  in  Eng- 
land was  a  failure,  alike  from  the  events  and  passions  of 
the  fierce  struggle  which  rendered  moderation  impossible, 
and  from  the  misfortune  of  the  age,  which  had  not  as  yet 
acquired  the  political  knowledge  that  time  alone  could 
gather  for  the  use  of  later  generations. 
1629  to  Charles  I.,  inheriting  his  father's  belief  in  the 
lew.  right  of  the  king  of  England  to  absolute  monarchical 


1G40.  THE   RESTORATION   OF  THE   STUARTS.  379 

power,  and  conspiring  against  the  national  constitution, 
which  he,  as  the  most  favored  among  the  natives  of  Eng- 
land, was  the  most  solemnly  bound  to  protect,  had  resolved 
to  govern  without  the  aid  of  a  parliament.  To  convene  a 
parliament  was  therefore,  in  itself,  an  acknowledgment  of 
defeat.  The  house  of  commons,  which  assembled  in 
April,  1640,  was  filled  with  men  not  less  loyal  to  the  ^pr0^. 
monarch  than  faithful  to  the  people ;  yet  the  king, 
who  had  neither  the  resignation  of  wise  resolution  nor  yet 
the  daring  of  despair,  perpetually  vacillating  between  the 
desire  of  destroying  English  liberty  and  a  timid  respect 
for  its  forms,  disregarded  the  wishes  of  his  more  prudent 
friends,  and,  under  the  influence  of  capricious  pas- 
sion, suddenly  dissolved  a  parliament  more  favorable  May  5. 
to  his  interests  than  any  which  he  could  again  hope 
from  the  excitement  of  the  times.  The  friends  of  the 
popular  party  were  elated  at  the  dissolution.  "  This  par- 
liament could  have  remedied  the  confusion,"  said  the  royal- 
ist Hyde,  afterwards  Earl  of  Clarendon,  to  Saint-John.  The 
countenance  of  the  sombre  republican,  usually  clouded  with 
gloom,  beamed  with  cheerfulness  as  he  replied :  "  All  is  well ; 
things  must  be  worse  before  they  can  be  better ;  this  parlia- 
ment could  never  have  done  what  is  necessary  to  be  done." 
The  exercise  of  absolute  power  was  become  more  difficult 
than  ever.  Strafford  had  advised  violent  measures.  There 
were  those  who  refused  to  take  the  oath  never  to  consent 
to  alterations  in  the  church  of  England.  "Send  for  the 
chief  leaders,"  wrote  Strafford,  "  and  lay  them  by  the 
heels ;  no  other  satisfaction  is  to  be  thought  of."  But 
Strafford  was  not  without  his  enemies  among  the  royalists. 
During  the  suspension  of  parliament,  two  parties  in  the 
cabinet  had  disputed  with  each  other  the  administration 
and  the  emoluments  of  despotism.  The  power  of  the  min- 
isters and  the  council  of  state  was  envied  by  the  ambition 
of  the  queen  and  the  greedy  selfishness  of  the  courtiers; 
and  the  arrogant  Strafford  and  the  unbending  Laud  had 
as  bitter  rivals  in  the  palace  as  they  had  enemies  in  the 
nation.  There  was  no  unity  among  the  friends  of  absolute 
power. 


380  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XL 

1640  The  expedient  of  a  council  of  peers,  convened 
Sept.  24.  at  York,  could  not  satisfy  a  people  that  venerated 
representative  government  as  the  most  valuable  bequest 
of  its  ancestors ;  and  a  few  weeks  showed  clearly  that 
concession  was  necessary.  The  councils  of  Charles  were 
divided  by  hesitancy,  rivalries,  and  the  want  of  plan  ;  while 
the  popular  leaders  were  full  of  energy  and  union,  and  were 
animated  by  what  seemed  a  distinct  purpose,  the  desire  of 
limiting  the  royal  authority.  The  summons  of  a  new  par- 
liament was  on  the  part  of  the  monarch  a  surrender  at 
discretion.  But,  by  the  English  constitution,  the  royal 
prerogative  was  in  some  cases  the  bulwark  of  popular  lib- 
erty ;  the  subversion  of  the  royal  authority  made  a  way  for 
the  despotism  of  parliament. 

The  Long  Parliament  was  not  originally  homogeneous. 

The  usurpations  of  the  monarch  threatened  the  priv- 
Nov.  3.  ileges  of  the  nobility  not  less  than  the  liberties  of 

the  people.  The  movement  in  the  public  mind, 
though  it  derived  its  vigor  as  well  as  its  origin  from  the 
rising  influence  of  the  Puritans,  was  not  directed  towards 
vindicating  power  for  the  people,  but  only  aimed  at  raising 
an  impassable  barrier  against  the  encroachments  of  royalty. 
The  object  met  with  favor  from  a  majority  of  the  peerage, 
and  from  royalists  among  the  commons;  and  the  past  ar- 
bitrary measures  of  the  court  found  opponents  in  Hyde, 
the  inflexible  tory  and  faithful  counsellor  of  the  Stuarts  ; 
in  the  more  scrupulous  Falkland,  who  hated  falsehood  and 
intrigue,  and  whose  imagination  inclined  him  to  the  popu- 
lar side,  till  he  began  to  dread  innovations  from  its  leaders 
more  than  from  the  ambition  of  the  king;  and  even  in 
Capel,  afterwards  one  of  the  bravest  of  the  Cavaliers,  and 
a  martyr  on  the  scaffold  for  his  obstinate  fidelity.  The 
highest  authority  in  England  began  to  belong  to  the  ma- 
jority in  parliament ;  no  republican  party  as  yet  existed ; 
the  first  division  ensued  between  the  ultra  royalists  and 
the  undivided  party  of  the  friends  of  constitutional  mon- 
archy ;  and,  though  the  house  was  in  a  great  measure  filled 
with  members  of  the  aristocracy,  the  moderate  royalists 
were  united  with  the  friends  of  the  people  ;  and,  on  the 


1641.  THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  STUARTS.  381 

choice  of  speaker,  an  immense  majority  appeared  in  favor 
of  the  constitution. 

The  Earl  of  Straff ord  anticipated  danger,  and  he  desired 
to  remain  in  Ireland.  "As  I  am  king  of  England,"  said 
Charles,  "  the  parliament  shall  not  touch  one  hair  of  your 
head ; "  and  the  reiterated  urgency  of  the  king  compelled 
his  attendance.  His  arraignment,  within  eight  days 
of  the  commencement  of  the  session,  marks  the  spirit  x^ii. 
of  the  commons  ;  his  attainder  was  the  sign  of  their 
ascendency.  "  On  the  honor  of  a  king,"  wrote  Charles  Apr412i. 
to  the  prisoner,  "you  shall  not  be  harmed  in  life, 
fortune,  or  honor ; "  and,  the  fourth  day  after  the  passage  of 
the  bill  of  attainder,  the  king  sent  his  adhesion  to  the  com- 
mons, adding :  "  If  Strafford  must  die,  it  were  charity 
to  reprieve  him  till  Saturday."  Men  dreaded  the  ser-  May  11. 
vice  of  a  sovereign  whose  love  was  so  worthless,  and 
whose  prerogative  was  so  weak ;  safety  was  found  on  the 
side  of  the  people ;  and  the  parliament  proceeded  without 
control  to  its  work  of  reform.  Its  earliest  acts  were  worthy 
of  all  praise.  The  liberties  of  the  people  were  recovered 
and  strengthened  by  appropriate  safeguards ;  the  arbitrary 
courts  of  high  commission,  and  the  court  of  wards,  were 
broken  up;  the  star-chamber,  doubly  hated  by  the  aris- 
tocracy, as  "  ever  a  great  eclipse  to  the  whole  nobility," 
was  with  one  voice  abolished  ;  the  administration  of  justice 
was  rescued  from  the  paramount  influence  of  the  crown ; 
and  taxation,  except  by  consent,  was  forbidden.  The  prin- 
ciple of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  was  introduced ;  and  the 
kingdom  of  England  was  lifted  out  of  the  bondage  of 
feudalism  by  a  series  of  reforms,  which  were  afterwards 
renewed,  and  which,  when  successfully  embodied  among 
the  statutes,  the  commentator  on  English  law  esteemed 
above  Magna  Charta  itself.  These  measures  were  national, 
were  adopted  almost  without  opposition,  and  received  the 
nearly  unanimous  assent  of  the  nation.  They  were  truly 
English  measures,  directed  in  part  against  abuses  introduced 
at  the  Norman  conquest,  in  part  against  the  encroachments 
of  the  sovereign.  They  wiped  away  the  traces  that  Eng- 
land had  been  governed  as  a  conquered  country  j  they  were 


382  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XL 

in  harmony  with  the  intelligence  and  the  pride,  the  preju- 
dices and  the  wants,  of  England.  Public  opinion  was  the 
ally  of  the  parliament. 

But  an  act  declaring  that  the  parliament  should  neither 
be  prorogued  nor  dissolved,  unless  with  its  own  consent, 
had  also  been  proposed,  and  urged  with  pertinacity,  till  it 
received  the  royal  concurrence.  Parliament,  in  its  turn, 
subverted  the  constitution,  by  establishing  its  own  para- 
mount authority,  and  making  itself  virtually  irresponsible 
to  its  constituents  ;  it  was  evident  a  parliamentary  despot- 
ism would  ensue.  The  English  government  was  substan- 
tially changed,  in  a  manner  injurious  to  the  power  of  the 
executive,  and  still  more  dangerous  to  the  freedom  of  the 
people.  The  king,  in  so  far  as  he  opposed  the  measure,  was 
the  friend  of  popular  liberty ;  the  passage  of  the  act  placed 
the  people  of  England,  not  less  than  the  king,  at  the  mercy 
of  the  parliament.  The  methods  of  tyranny  are  always 
essentially  the  same ;  the  freedom  of  the  press  was  sub- 
jected to  parliamentary  censors.  The  usurpation  foreboded 
the  subversion  of  the  throne  and  the  subjection  of  the  peo- 
ple. The  liberators  of  England  were  become  its  tyrants ; 
the  rights  of  the  nation  had  been  asserted  only  to  be  seques- 
tered for  their  use. 

The  spirit  of  loyalty  was  still  powerful  in  the  com- 
mons ;  as  their  demands  advanced,  stormy  debates  and 
a  close  division  ensued.  Falkland  and  Capel  and  Hyde 
now  acted  with  the  court.  The  remonstrance  on  the  state 
of  the  kingdom,  an  uncompromising  manifesto  against  the 
arbitrary  measures  of  Charles,  was  democratic  in  its  ten- 
dency, because  it  proposed  no  specific  reform,  but  was 
rather  a  general  and  exciting  appeal  to  popular  opinion. 
The  English  mind  was  as  restless  as  the  waves  of  the 
ocean  by  which  the  isle  is  environed ;  the  remonstrance  was 
designed  to  increase  that  restlessness ;  in  a  house  of  more 
than  five  hundred  members,  it  was  adopted  by  the  meagre 
majority  of  eleven.  "  Had  it  not  been  carried,"  said 
Nov!1^.  Cromwell  to  Falkland,  "  I  should  have  sold  all  I  pos- 
sess, and  left  the  kingdom ;  many  honest  men  were 
of  the  same  resolution."  From  the  contest  for  "  English 


1642.  THE   RESTORATION   OF    THE   STUARTS.  383 

liberties,"  men  advanced  to  the  discussion  of  natural  rights ; 
with  the  expansion  of  their  views,  their  purposes  ceased  to 
be  definite ;  and  already  reform  was  changing  into  a  revolu- 
tion. They,  were  prepared  to  strip  the  church  of  its  power 
and  royalty  of  its  prescriptive  sanctity ;  and  it  was  observ- 
able that  religious  faith  was  on  the  side  of  innovation,  while 
incredulity  abounded  among  the  supporters  of  the  divine 
right. 

The  policy  of  the  king  preserved  its  character  of  varia- 
bleness. He  had  yielded  where  he  should  have  been  firm  ; 
and  he  now  invited  a  revolution  by  the  violence  of  his 
counsels.  Moderation  and  sincerity  would  have  restored 
his  influence.  But  when,  attended  by  armed  men, 
he  repaired  in  person  to  the  house  of  commons,  with  j^24- 
the  intent  of  seizing  six  of  the  leaders  of  the  patriot 
party,  whose  execution  was  to  soothe  his  fears  and  tran- 
quillize his  hatred,  the  extreme  procedure,  so  bloody  in  its 
purpose  and  so  illegal  in  its  course,  could  only  rouse  the 
nation  to  anger  against  its  sovereign,  justify  for  the  time 
every  diminution  of  his  prerogative,  and,  by  inspiring  set- 
tled distrust,  animate  the  leaders  of  the  popular  party  to  a 
gloomy  inflexibility.  There  was  no  room  to  hope  for  peace. 
The  monarch  was  faithless,  and  the  people  knew  no  remedy. 
A  change  of  dynasty  was  not  then  proposed ;  and  England 
languished  of  a  disease  for  which  no  cure  had  been  discov- 
ered. It  was  evident  that  force  must  decide  the  struggle. 
The  parliament  demanded  the  control  of  the  national  militia 
with  the  possession  of  the  fortified  towns.  But  would  the 
Cavaliers  consent  to  surrender  all  military  power  to  ple- 
beian statesmen  ?  Would  the  nobility  endure  that  men 
should  exercise  dominion  over  the  king,  whose  predecessors 
their  ancestors  had  hardly  been  permitted  to  serve?  To 
Charles,  who  had  had  neither  firmness  to  maintain  his  just 
authority,  nor  sincerity  to  effect  a  safe  reconciliation,  no 
alternative  remained  but  resistance  or  the  surrender 
of  all  power ;  and,  unfurling  the  royal  standard,  he 
began  a  civil  war. 

The  contest  was  between  a  permanent  parliament  and  an 
arbitrary  king.     The  people  had  no  mode  of  intervention 


384  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XI. 

except  by  serving  in  the  armies  ;  they  could  not  come  for- 
ward as  mediators  or  as  masters.  The  parliament  was 
become  a  body,  of  which  the  duration  depended  on  its  own 
will,  unchecked  by  a  supreme  executive  or  by  an  indepen- 
dent co-ordinate  branch  of  legislation  ;  and  therefore,  of 
necessity,  a  multitudinous  despot,  unbalanced  and  irrespon- 
sible ;  levying  taxes,  enlisting  soldiers,  commanding  the 
navy  and  the  army,  enacting  laws,  and  changing  at  its  will 
the  forms  of  the  English  constitution.  The  issue  was  cer- 
tain. Every  representative  body  is  swayed  by  the  interests 
of  its  constituents,  the  interests  of  its  own  assembly,  and  the 
personal  interests  of  its  respective  members  ;  and  never  was 
the  successive  predominance  of  each  of  these  sets  of  motives 
more  clear  than  in  the  Long  Parliament.  Its  first  acts  were 
mainly  for  its  constituents,  whose  rights  it  vindicated  and 
whose  liberties  it  increased ;  its  corporate  ambition  next 
prevailed,  and  it  set  itself  against  the  throne  and  the  peer- 
age, both  of  which  it  was  hurried  forward  to  subvert ;  indi- 
vidual selfishness  at  last  had  its  triumph,  and  there  were  not 
wanting  men  who  sought  lucrative  jobs  and  grasped  at  dis- 
proportioned  emoluments.  Nothing  could  check  the  progress 
of  degeneracy  and  corruption  ;  the  example,  the  ability,  and 
the  conscientious  purity  of  Henry  Vane  were  unavailing. 
Had  the  life  of  Hampden  been  spared,  he  could  not  have 
changed  the  course  of  events,  for  he  could  not  have  changed 
the  laws  of  nature  and  the  principles  of  human  action. 

The  majority  in  parliament  was  become  the  master 
1644.  of  England  ;  and  after  one  hundred  and  eighteen 
royalist  members,  obeying  the  summons  of  the  king, 
had  repaired  to  Oxford,  royalty  was  powerless  in  the  legis- 
lature. The  church  of  England  was  prostrate  ;  but  religious 
and  political  parties  were  identified  ;  and  the  new  division 
conformed  itself  to  the  rising  religious  sects.  Now  that  the 
friends  of  the  church  had  withdrawn,  the  commons  were  at 
once  divided  into  two  imposing  parties,  the  Presbyterians 
and  the  Independents ;  the  friends  of  a  political  revolution 
which  should  yet  establish  a  nobility,  a  limited  monarchy, 
and  a  national  church,  and  the  friends  of  an  entire  revolu- 
tion on  the  principle  of  equality. 


CHAP.  XL    THE   RESTORATION   OF   THE   STUARTS  385 

The  majority  was  with  the  Presbyterians,  who  were 
elated  with  the  sure  hope  of  a  triumph.  They  represented 
a  powerful  portion  of  the  aristocracy  of  England  ;  they  had, 
besides  a  majority  in  the  commons,  the  exclusive  possession 
of  the  house  of  lords ;  they  held  the  command  of  the  army ; 
they  had  numerous  and  active  adherents  among  the  clergy ; 
the  English  people  favored  them ;  Scotland,  which  had  been 
so  efficient  in  all  that  had  thus  far  been  done,  was  devoted 
to  their  interests ;  and  they  hoped  for  a  compromise  with 
their  sovereign.  They  envied  the  success  of  tyranny  more 
than  they  abhorred  its  principles  ;  monarchy,  with  Presby- 
terianism  as  the  religion  of  state,  was  their  purpose ;  and 
they  were  at  all  times  prepared  to  make  peace  with  the 
king,  if  he  would  but  consent  to  that  revolution  in  the 
church  which  they  desired. 

And  what  counterpoise  could  be  offered  by  the  Indepen- 
dents ?  How  could  they  hope  for  superior  influence,  when 
it  could  be  gained  only  by  rising  above  the  commons,  the 
peers,  the  commanders  of  the  army,  all  Scotland,  and  the 
mass  of  the  English  people  ?  They  had  no  omen  of  success 
but  the  tendency  of  revolutions,  the  enthusiasm  of  new 
opinions,  the  inclination  of  the  human  mind  to  push  princi- 
ples to  their  remoter  consequences.  An  amalgamation  with 
the  Presbyterians  would  have  implied  subjection ;  power 
could  be  gained  only  by  that  progress  in  innovations  which 
would  drive  the  Presbyterians  into  opposition.  The  Inde- 
pendents, sharing  in  the  agitation  of  the  public  mind,  made 
the  new  ideas  the  support  of  their  zeal  and  the  basis  of 
their  party.  They  gradually  became  the  advocates  of  re- 
ligious liberty  and  the  power  of  the  people.  Their  eyes 
were  turned  towards  democratic  institutions ;  and  the  glo- 
rious vision  of  emancipating  the  commons  of  England  from 
feudal  oppression,  from  intellectual  servitude,  and  from  a 
long  aristocracy  of  superstition,  inflamed  them  with  a  zeal 
which  would  not  be  rebuked  by  the  inconsistency  of  their 
schemes  with  the  opinions,  habits,  and  institutions  of  the 
nation. 

The  Presbyterian  nobility,  who  had  struggled  for  their 
privileges  against  royal  power,  were  unwilling  that  innova- 
VOL.  i.  25 


386  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XI. 

tion  should  go  so  far  as  to  impair  their  rank  or  diminish 
their  grandeur;  the  Independents,  as  new  men,  who  had 
their  fortunes  to  make,  were  prepared  not  only  to  subvert 
the  throne,  but  to  contend  for  equality  against  privilege. 
"  The  Presbyterian  Earl  of  Manchester,"  said  Cromwell, 
"  shall  be  content  with  being  no  more  than  plain  Montague." 
The  men  who  broke  away  from  the  forms  of  society,  and 
venerated  nothing  but  truth ;  others  who,  in  the  folly  of 
their  pride,  claimed  for  their  opinions  the  sanctity  and  the 
rights  of  truth ;  they  who  sighed  for  a  more  equal  diffusion 
of  social  benefits ;  the  friends  of  entire  liberty  of  con- 
science ;  the  friends  of  a  reform  in  the  law,  and  a  diminu- 
tion of  the  profits  of  the  lawyers  ;  the  men,  like  Milton  and 
Sydney,  whose  imagination  delighted  in  pictures  of  Roman 
liberty,  of  Spartan  virtue  ;  the  less  educated,  who  indulged 
in  visions  of  a  restoration  of  that  happy  Anglo-Saxon  sys- 
tem, which  had  been  invented  in  the  woods  in  days  of 
Anglo-Saxon  simplicity ;  the  republicans,  the  levellers,  the 
fanatics,  —  all  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  the  new 
ideas. 

The  true  representative  of  the  better  principles  of  the 
Independents  was  Henry  Vane ;  but  the  acknowledged 
leader  of  the  party  was  Oliver  Cromwell.  Was  he  sincere  ? 
Or  was  he  wholly  a  hypocrite  ?  It  is  difficult  to  disbelieve 
that  his  mind  was  honestly  imbued  with  the  extreme  princi- 
ples of  Puritan  reforms  ;  but  the  man  whose  ruling  motive 
is  ambition  soon  gains  the  mastery  over  his  own  convic- 
tions, and  values  and  employs  ideas  only  as  instruments  to 
his  advancement.  Self-love  easily  dupes  conscience ;  and 
Cromwell  may  have  always  believed  himself  .faithful  to  the 
interest  of  England.  All  great  men  are  inclined  to  fatal- 
ism ;  for  their  success  is  a  mystery  to  themselves  ;  and  it 
was  not  entirely  with  hypocrisy  that  Cromwell,  to  the  last, 
professed  himself  the  servant  of  Providence,  borne  along 
by  irresistible  necessity. 

Had  peace  never  been  broken,  the  Independents  would 
have  remained  a  powerless  minority;  the  civil  war  gave 
them  a  rallying  point  in  the  army.  In  the  season  of  great 
public  excitement,  fanatics  crowded  to  the  camp ;  an  ardor 


1647.  THE   RESTORATION   OF   THE   STUARTS.  387 

for  popular  liberty  mingled  with  the  fervors  of  religious 
excitement.  Cromwell  had  early  perceived  that  the  honor 
and  valor  of  the  Cavaliers  could  never  be  overthrown  by 
ordinary  hirelings ;  he  therefore  sought  to  fill  the  ranks  of 
his  army  with  enthusiasts.  His  officers  were  alike  ready  to 
preach  and  pray,  and  to  take  the  lead  in  the  field  of  battle. 
With  much  hypocrisy,  his  camp  was  the  scene  of  much  real 
piety ;  and  long  afterwards,  when  his  army  was  disbanded, 
its  members  who,  for  the  most  part,  were  farmers  and  the 
sons  of  farmers,  resumed  their  places  among  the  industrious 
classes  of  society ;  while  the  soldiers  of  the  royalists  were 
often  found  in  the  ranks  of  vagabonds  and  beggars.  It  was 
the  troops  of  Cromwell  that  first,  in  the  open  field,  broke 
the  ranks  of  the  royal  squadrons;  and  the  decisive 
victory  of  Marston  Moor  was  won  by  their  iron  en- 
ergy  and  valor. 

The  final  overthrow  of  the  prospects  of  Charles  in  1647. 
the  field  marks  the  crisis  of  the  struggle  for  the  as- 
cendant between  the  Presbyterians  and  Independents.  The 
former  party  had  its  organ  in  the  parliament,  the  latter  in 
the  army,  in  which  the  Presbyterian  commander  had  been 
surprised  into  a  resignation  by  the  self-denying  ordinance 
and  the  intrigues  of  Cromwell.  As  the  duration  of  the 
parliament  depended  on  its  own  will,  the  army  refused  to 
be  disbanded ;  claiming  to  represent  the  interests  of  the 
people,  and  actually  constituting  the  only  balance  to  the 
otherwise  unlimited  power  of  the  parliament.  The  army 
could  call  the  parliament  a  usurper,  and  the  parliament 
could  arraign  the  army  as  a  branch  of  the  public  service, 
whose  duty  was  obedience,  and  not  counsel.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  the  parliament  pleaded  its  office  as  the  grand  coun- 
cil of  the  nation,  the  army  could  urge  its  merits  as  the 
active  and  successful  antagonist  to  royal  despotism. 

The  Presbyterians  broke  forth  into  menaces  against  the 
army.  "  These  men,"  whispered  Cromwell  to  Ludlow,  "  will 
never  leave  till  the  army  pull  them  out  by  the  ears.".  The 
Presbyterian  majority  was  in  a  false  position ;  it  appeared 
to  possess  paramount  power,  and  did  not  actually  possess  it. 
Could  they  gain  the  person  of  the  king,  and  succeed  in 


888  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  XL 

pacific  negotiations,  their  influence  would  be  renewed  by 
the  natural  love  of  order  in  the  minds  of  the  English  peo- 
ple. A  conflict  with  the  Independents  was  unavoidable; 
for  the  Independents  could  in  no  event  negotiate  with  the 
king.  In  every  negotiation,  a  free  parliament  must  have 
been  a  condition ;  and  a  free  parliament  would  have  been 
their  doom.  Self-preservation,  uniting  with  ambition  and 
wild  enthusiasm,  urged  them  to  uncompromising  hostility 
with  Charles  I.  He  or  they  must  perish.  "  If  my  head  or 
the  king's  must  fall,"  argued  Cromwell,  "  can  I  hesitate 
which  to  choose  ?  "  By  an  act  of  violence  the  Independents 
seized  on  the  king,  and  held  him  in  their  special  custody. 
"Now,"  said  the  exulting  Cromwell,  "now  that  I  have  the 
king  in  my  hands,  I  have  the  parliament  in  my  pocket." 
At  length,  the  Presbyterian  majority,  sustained  by  the 

admirable  eloquence  of  Prynne,  attempted  to  dis- 
r>ec.85.  Pense  with  the  army,  and  by  a  decided  vote  resolved 

to  make  peace  with  the  king.    To  save  its  party  from 

an  entire  defeat,  the  army  interposed,  and  "  purged  " 
Dec.  6.  the  house  of  commons.  "  Hear  us,"  said  the  excluded 

members  to  Colonel  Pride,  who  expelled  them.  "  I 
cannot  spare  the  time,"  replied  the  soldier.  "  By  what 
right  are  we  arrested  ?  "  demanded  they  of  the  extravagant 
Hugh  Peter.  "  By  the  right  of  the  sword,"  answered  the 
late  envoy  from  Massachusetts.  "  You  are  called,"  said  he, 
as  he  preached  to  the  decimated  parliament,  "  to  lead  the 
people  out  of  Egyptian  bondage ;  this  army  must  root  up 
monarchy,  not  only  here,  but  in  France  and  other  kingdoms 
round  about."  Cromwell,  the  night  after  "the  interrup- 
tion," reiterated :  "  I  knew  nothing  of  these  late  proceed- 
ings ;  but,  since  the  work  has  been  done,  I  am  glad  of  it, 
and  will  endeavor  to  maintain  it." 

When  the  winnowing  of  the  house  of  commons  was  fin- 
ished, there  remained  few  beside  republicans ;  and  it  was  re- 
solved to  bring  the  unhappy  monarch  to  trial  before  a  special 
commission.  "Providence  and  necessity,"  said  Cromwell, 
affecting  indecision,  "have  cast  the  house  upon  this  deliber- 
ation. I  shall  pray  God  to  bless  our  counsels."  The  young 
and  sincere  Algernon  Sydney  opposed,  and  saw  the  danger 


1649.  THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE   STUARTS.  389 

of  a  counter-revolution.  "No  one  will  stir,"  cried  Crom- 
well, impatiently  :  "  I  tell  you  we  will  cut  off  his  head  with 
the  crown  on  it."  Sydney  withdrew ;  and  Charles  was 
abandoned  to  the  sanguinary  severity  of  a  sect.  To  sign 
the  death-warrant  was  a  solemn  deed,  from  which  some  of 
his  judges  were  ready  to  shrink ;  Cromwell  concealed  the 
magnitude  of  the  act  under  an  air  of  buffoonery ;  the  cham- 
ber rung  with  gayety ;  he  daubed  the  cheek  of  one  of  the 
judges  that  sat  next  him  with  ink,  and,  amidst  shouts  of 
laughter,  compelled  another,  the  wavering  Ingoldsby, 
to  sign  the  paper  as  a  jest.  The  ambassadors  of  for-  i&ts. 
eign  princes  presented  no  remonstrance;  and,  when 
the  admirable  collections  of  the  unhappy  king  were  sold  at 
auction,  they  purchased  his  favorite  works  of  art  with  rival 
eagerness.  Holland  alone  negotiated.  The  English  people 
were  overawed. 

Treason  against  the  state,  on  the  part  of  its  highest  offi- 
cers, is  the  darkest  of  human  offences.  Fidelity  to  the 
constitution  is  due  from  every  citizen ;  in  a  monarch,  the 
debt  of  gratitude  is  enhanced,  for  the  monarch  is  the  hered- 
itary and  special  favorite  of  the  fundamental  laws.  The 
murderer,  even  where  his  victim  is  eminent  for  mind  and 
character,  destroys  what  time  will  repair ;  and,  deep  as  is  his 
guilt,  society  suffers  but  transiently  from  the  transgression. 
But  the  king  who  conspires  against  the  liberties  of  the  peo- 
ple conspires  to  subvert  the  most  precious  bequest  of  past 
ages,  the  dearest  hope  of  future  time ;  he  would  destroy 
genius  in  its  birth  and  enterprise  in  its  sources,  and  sacrifice 
the  prolific  causes  of  intelligence  and  virtue  to  his  avarice 
or  his  vanity,  his  caprices  or  his  ambition  ;  would  rob  the 
nation  of  its  nationality,  the  people  of  the  prerogatives  of 
man  ;  would  deprive  common  life  of  its  sweets,  by  depriving 
it  of  its  security,  and  religion  of  its  power  to  solace,  by  sub- 
jecting it  to  supervision  and  control.  His  crime  would  not 
only  enslave  a  present  race  of  men,  but  forge  chains  for 
unborn  generations.  There  can  be  no  fouler  deed. 

Tried  by  the  standard  of  his  own  intentions  and 
his  own  actions,  Charles  I.,  it  may  be,  had  little  right  j^^>. 
to  complain.    Yet,  when  history  gives  its  impartial 


390  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XL 

verdict  on  the  execution,  it  remembers  that,  by  the  laws  of 
England,  the  meanest  individual  could  claim  a  trial  by  his 
peers ;  and  that  the  king  was  delivered,  by  a  decimated 
parliament,  which  had  prejudged  his  case,  to  a  commission 
composed  of  his  bitterest  enemies,  and  erected  in  defiance 
of  the  wishes  of  the  people.  His  judges  were  but  a  military 
tribunal ;  and  the  judgment,  which  assumed  to  be  a  solemn 
exercise  of  justice  on  the  worst  of  criminals,  arraigned  by  a 
great  nation,  and  tried  by  its  representatives,  was  in  truth 
an  act  of  tyranny.  His  accusers  could  have  rightfully  pro- 
ceeded only  as  the  agents  of  the  popular  sovereignty ;  and 
the  people  disclaimed  the  deed.  An  appeal  to  the  people 
would  have  reversed  the  decision.  The  churchmen,  the 
Presbyterians,  the  lawyers,  the  opulent  landholders,  the 
merchants,  and  the  great  majority  of  the  English  nation, 
preferred  the  continuance  of  a  limited  monarchy.  There 
could  be  no  republic.  There  was  no  republic.  Not  suffi- 
cient advancement  had  been  made  in  political  knowledge. 
Milton  believed  himself  a  friend  of  popular  liberty ;  and, 
against  the  assertion  that  a  whole  people  can  sell  themselves 
into  slavery,  defended  the  revocable  nature  of  all  conceded 
civil  power  ;  yet  his  scheme  of  government,  which  proposed 
to  subject  England  to  the  executive  authority  of  a  self- 
perpetuating  council,  was  far  less  favorable  to  equal  freedom 
and  to  progress  than  monarchy  itself.  Not  one  of  the 
proposed  methods  of  government  was  capable  of  being  real- 
ized. Lilbourne's  was,  perhaps,  the  most  consistent,  but 
was  equally  impracticable. 

1649.  If  the  execution  of  Charles  be  considered  by  the 
June  so.  ruje  of  utiiity,  its  effects  will  be  found  to  have  been 
entirely  bad.  A  free  parliament  would  have  saved  the  king, 
and  reformed  church  and  state ;  in  aiming  at  the  immediate 
enjoyment  of  democratic  liberty,  the  statesmen  of  that  day 
delayed  popular  enfranchisements.  Nations  change  their 
institutions  but  slowly  :  to  attempt  to  pass  abruptly  from 
feudalism  and  monarchy  to  democratic  equality  was  the 
thought  of  enthusiasts,  who  understood  neither  the  history, 
the  character,  nor  the  condition  of  the  country.  It  was 
like  laying  out  into  entirely  new  streets  a  city  that  was 


CHAP.  XL   THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE   STUARTS.  391 

already  crowded  with  massive  structures,  resting  on  firm 
foundations.  Cromwell  alone  profited  by  the  death  of  the 
king :  the  deed  was  his  policy,  and  not  the  policy  of  the 
nation. 

The  remaining  members  of  the  commons  were  now  by 
their  own  act  constituted  the  sole  legislature  and  sovereign 
of  England.  The  peerage  was  abolished  with  monarchy ; 
the  connection  between  state  and  church  rent  asunder ;  but 
there  was  no  republic.  Selfish  ambition  forbade  it;  the 
state  of  society  and  the  distribution  and  tenure  of  property 
forbade  it.  The  commons  usurped  not  only  all  powers  of 
ordinary  legislation,  but  even  the  right  of  remoulding  the 
constitution.  They  were  a  sort  of  collective,  self-constituted, 
perpetual  dictatorship.  Like  Rome  under  its  decemviri, 
England  was  enslaved  by  its  legislators;  English  liberty 
had  become  the  patrimony  and  estate  of  the  commons ;  the 
forms  of  government,  the  courts  of  justice,  peace  and  war, 
all  executive,  all  legislative  power,  rested  with  them.  They 
were  irresponsible,  absolute,  and  apparently  never  to  be 
dissolved  but  at  their  own  pleasure. 

But  the  commons  were  not  sustained  by  the  public  opin- 
ion of  the  nation.  They  were  resisted  by  the  royalists  and 
the  Catholics,  by  the  Presbyterians  and  the  fanatics,  by  the 
honest  republicans  and  the  army.  In  Ireland,  the  Catholics 
dreaded  the  worst  cruelties  that  Protestant  bigotry  could 
inflict.  Scotland,  almost  unanimous  in  its  adhesion  to 
Presbyterianism,  regarded  with  horror  the  rise  of  democ- 
racy and  the  triumph  of  the  Independents ;  the  fall  of  the 
Stuarts  foreboded  the  overthrow  of  its  independence ;  it 
loved  liberty,  but  it  loved  its  nationality  also.  It  feared 
the  sovereignty  of  an  English  parliament,  and  desired  the 
restoration  of  monarchy  as  a  guarantee  against  the  danger 
of  being  treated  as  a  conquered  province.  In  England,  the 
opulent  landholders,  who  swayed  their  ignorant  dependants, 
rendered  popular  institutions  impossible ;  and  too  little 
intelligence  had  as  yet  been  diffused  through  the  mass  of 
the  people  to  make  them  capable  of  taking  the  lead  in  the 
progress  of  civilization.  The  schemes  of  social  and  civil 
equality  found  no  support  but  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the  few 


392  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XI. 

who  fostered  them ;  and  clouds  of  discontent  gathered  sul- 
lenly round  the  nation. 

The  attempt  at  a  counter-revolution  followed.  But  the 
parties  by  which  it  was  made,  though  a  vast  majority  of  the 
three  nations,  were  filled  with  mutual  antipathies ;  the  Cath- 
olics of  Ireland  had  no  faith  in  the  Scottish  Presbyterians ; 
and  these  in  their  turn  were  full  of  distrust  and  hatred  of 
the  English  Cavaliers.  They  feared  each  other  as  much 
as  they  feared  the  commons.  There  could  therefore  be  no 
concert  of  opposition  ;  the  insurrections,  which,  had  they 
been  made  unitedly,  would  probably  have  been  successful, 
were  not  simultaneous.  The  Independents  were  united ; 
their  strength  lay  in  a  small  but  well-disciplined  army;  the 
celerity  and  military  genius  of  Cromwell  insured  to  them 
unity  of  counsels  and  promptness  of  action  ;  they  conquered 
their  adversaries  in  detail ;  and  the  massacre  of  Drogheda, 
the  field  of  Dunbar,  and  the  victory  of  Worcester,  destroyed 
the  present  hopes  of  the  friends  of  monarchy. 

The  lustre  of  Cromwell's  victories  ennobled  the  crimes  of 
his  ambition.  When  the  forces  of  the  insurgents  had  been 
beaten  down,  there  remained  but  two  powers  in  the  state, 
the  Long  Parliament  and  the  army.  To  submit  to  a  mili- 
tary despotism  was  inconsistent  with  the  genius  of  the 
people  of  England ;  and  yet  the  Long  Parliament,  now 
containing  but  a  fraction  of  its  original  members,  could  not 
be  recognised  as  the  rightful  sovereign  of  the  country,  and 
possessed  only  the  shadow  of  executive  power.  Public 
confidence  rested  on  Cromwell  alone.  The  few  true  re- 
publicans had  no  party  in  the  nation  ;  a  dissolution  of  the 
parliament  would  have  led  to  anarchy ;  a  reconciliation 
with  Charles  II.,  whose  father  had  just  been  executed,  was 
impossible  ;  a  standing  army,  it  was  plausibly  argued,  re- 
quired to  be  balanced  by  a  standing  parliament ;  and  the 
house  of  commons,  the  mother  of  the  commonwealth,  in- 
sisted on  nursing  the  institutions  which  it  had  established. 
But  the  public  mind  reasoned  differently ;  the  virtual 
power  rested  with  the  army ;  men  dreaded  confusion,  and 
sighed  for  peace ;  and  they  were  pleased  with  the  retribu- 
tive justice  that  the  parliament,  which  had  destroyed 


CHAP.  XI.    THE   RESTORATION  OF   THE   STUARTS.  393 

the  English  king,  should  itself  be  subverted  by  one  of  its 
members. 

Thus  the  attempt  at  absolute  monarchy  on  the  part  of 
Charles  I.  yielded  to  a  constitutional,  true  English  parlia- 
ment ;  the  control  of  parliament  passed  from  the  constitu- 
tional royalists  to  the  Presbyterians,  or  representatives  of 
a  part  of  the  aristocracy  opposed  to  Episcopacy ;  from  the 
Presbyterians  to  the  Independents,  the  enthusiasts,  real  or 
pretended,  for  popular  liberty ;  and,  now  that  the  course  of 
the  revolution  had  outstripped  public  opinion,  a  powerful 
reaction  gave  the  supreme  authority  to  Cromwell.  Sover- 
eignty had  escaped  from  the  king  to  the  parliament,  from 
the  parliament  to  the  commons,  from  the  commons  to  the 
army,  and  from  the  army  to  its  successful  commander. 
Each  revolution  was  a  natural  and  necessary  consequence 
of  its  predecessor. 

Cromwell  was  one  whom  even  his  enemies  cannot  name 
without  acknowledging  his  greatness.  The  farmer  of  Hunt- 
ingdon, accustomed  only  to  rural  occupations,  unnoticed 
till  he  was  more  than  forty  years  old,  engaged  in  no  higher 
plots  than  how  to  improve  the  returns  of  his  land  and  fill 
his  orchard  with  choice  fruit,  of  a  sudden  became  the  best 
officer  in  the  British  army,  and  the  greatest  statesman  of 
his  time  ;  subverted  the  English  constitution,  which  had 
been  the  work  of  centuries ;  held  in  his  own  grasp  the  liber- 
ties which  formed  a  part  of  the  nature  of  the  English  people, 
and  cast  the  kingdoms  into  a  new  mould.  Religious  peace, 
such  as  England  till  now  has  never  again  seen,  flourished 
under  his  calm  mediation ;  justice  found  its  way  even 
among  the  remotest  Highlands  of  Scotland ;  commerce 
filled  the  English  marts  with  prosperous  activity,  his  fleets 
rode  triumphant  in  the  West  Indies ;  Nova  Scotia  submitted 
to  his  orders  without  a  struggle ;  the  Dutch  begged  of  him 
for  peace  as  for  a  boon ;  Louis  XIV.  was  humiliated ;  the 
Protestants  of  Piedmont  breathed  their  prayers  in  secur- 
ity. His  squadron  made  sure  of  Jamaica;  he  had  strong 
thoughts  of  Hispaniola  and  Cuba ;  and,  to  use  his  own 
words,  resolved  "  to  strive  with  the  Spaniard  for  the  mas- 
tery of  all  those  seas."  The  glory  of  the  English  was 


394  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  XI. 

spread  throughout  the  world  :  "  Under  the  tropic  was  their 
language  spoke." 

And  yet  his  career  was  but  an  attempt  to  conciliate  a 
union  between  his  power  and  permanent  public  order ;  and 
the  attempt  was  always  unavailing,  from  the  inherent  im- 
possibility growing  out  of  the  origin  of  his  power.  It  was 
derived  from  the  submission,  not  from  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  it  came  by  the  sword,  not  from  the  nation,  nor  from 
established  national  usages.  Cromwell  saw  the  impractica- 
bility of  a  republic,  and  offered  no  excuse  for  his  usurpa- 
tions but  the  right  of  the  strongest  to  restore  tranquillity ; 
the  old  plea  of  tyrants  and  oppressors  from  the  beginning 
of  the  world.  He  had  made  use  of  the  enthusiasm  of 
liberty  for  his  advancement ;  he  sought  to  sustain  him- 
self by  conciliating  the  most  opposite  sects.  For  the 
republicans,  he  had  apologies :  "  The  sons  of  Zeruiah,  the 
lawyers,  and  the  men  of  wealth,  are  too  strong  for  us. 
If  we  speak  of  reform,  they  cry  out  that  we  design  to  de- 
stroy all  propriety."  To  the  witness  of  the  young  Quaker 
against  priestcraft  and  war,  he  replied  :  "  It  is  very  good ; 
it  is  truth  ;  if  THOU  and  I  were  but  an  hour  of  a  day  to- 
gether, we  should  be  nearer  one  to  the  other."  From  the 
field  of  Dunbar  he  had  charged  the  Long  Parliament  "  to 
reform  abuses,  and  not  to  multiply  poor  men  for  the  benefit 
of  the  rich."  Presently  he  appealed  to  the  moneyed  men 
and  the  lawyers  :  "  he  alone  could  save  them  from  the  lev- 
ellers, men  more  ready  to  destroy  than  to  reform."  Did 
the  sincere  levellers,  the  true  commonwealth's  men,  make 
their  way  into  his  presence,  he  assured  them  "  he  preferred 
a  shepherd's  crook  to  the  office  of  protector ;  he  would  resign 
all  power  so  soon  as  God  should  reveal  his  definite  will ;  " 
and  then  he  would  invite  them  to  pray.  "  For,"  said  he 
one  day  to  the  poet  Waller,  "  I  must  talk  to  these  people 
in  their  own  style."  Did  the  passion  for  political  equality 
blaze  up  in  the  breasts  of  the  yeomanry,  who  constituted 
his  bravest  troops,  it  was  checked  by  the  terrors  of  a  mili- 
tary execution.  The  Scotch  Presbyterians  could  not  be 
cajoled  :  he  resolved  to  bow  their  pride ;  and  did  it  in  the 
only  way  in  which  it  could  be  done,  by  wielding  against 


1653.          THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE   STUARTS.  395 

their  bigotry  the  great  conception  of  the  age,  the  doctrine 
of  Roger  Williams  and  Descartes,  freedom  of  conscience. 
"  Approbation,"  said  he,  as  I  believe,  with  sincerity  of 
conviction,  "is  an  act  of  conveniency,  not  of  necessity. 
Does  a  man  speak  foolishly,  suffer  him  gladly,  for  ye  are 
wise.  Does  he  speak  erroneously,  stop  such  a  man's  mouth 
with  sound  words,  that  cannot  be  gainsaid.  Does  he  speak 
truly,  rejoice  in  the  truth."  To  win  the  royalists,  he  ob- 
tained an  act  of  amnesty,  a  pledge  of  future  favor  to  such 
of  them  as  would  submit.  He  courted  the  nation  by  excit- 
ing and  gratifying  national  pride,  by  able  negotiations,  by 
victory  and  conquest.  He  sought  to  enlist  in  his  favor  the 
religious  sympathies  of  the  people,  by  assuming  for  Eng- 
land a  guardianship  over  the  interests  of  Protestant  Chris 
tendom. 

Seldom  was  there  a  less  scrupulous  or  more  gifted  politi- 
cian than  Cromwell.  But  he  was  no  longer  a  leader  of  a 
party.  He  had  no  party.  A  party  cannot  exist  except  by 
the  force  of  common  principles  ;  it  is  truth,  and  truth  only, 
that  of  itself  rallies  men  together.  Cromwell,  the  oppressor 
of  the  Independents,  had  ceased  to  respect  principles ;  his 
object  was  the  advancement  of  his  family ;  his  hold  on 
opinion  went  no  farther  than  the  dread  of  anarchy,  and  the 
strong  desire  for  order.  If  moderate  and  disinterested  men 
consented  to  his  power,  it  was  to  his  power  as  high  consta- 
ble, engaged  to  preserve  the  public  peace.  He  could  not 
confer  on  his  country  a  fixed  form  of  government,  for  that 
required  a  concert  with  the  national  affections,  which  he 
was  never  able  to  gain.  He  had  just  notions  of  public 
liberty,  and  he  understood  how  much  the  English  people 
are  disposed  to  magnify  their  representatives.  Thrice  did  he 
attempt  to  connect  his  usurpation  with  the  forms  of  repre- 
sentative government,  and  always  without  success.  His 
first  parliament,  convened  by  special  writ,  and  mainly  com- 
posed of  the  members  of  the  party  by  which  he  had  been 
advanced,  represented  the  movement  in  the  English 
mind  which  had  been  the  cause  of  the  revolution.  It  j1^^ 
indulged  in  pious  ecstasies,  laid  claim  to  the  special 
enjoyment  of  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  spent  whole 


39(5  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XL 

days  in  exhortations  and  prayers.  But  the  delirium  of 
mysticism  was  not  incompatible  with  clear  notions  of  pol- 
icy; and,  amidst  the  hyperboles  of  Oriental  diction,  they 
prepared  to  overthrow  despotic  power  by  using  the  power 
a  despot  had  conceded.  The  objects  of  this  assembly  were 
all  democratic  :  it  labored  to  effect  a  most  radical  reform  ; 
to  codify  English  law,  by  reducing  the  huge  volumes  of  the 
common  law  into  a  few  simple  English  axioms  ;  to  abolish 
tithes  ;  and  to  establish  an  absolute  religious  freedom,  such 
as  the  United  States  now  enjoy.  This  parliament  has  for 
ages  been  the  theme  of  unsparing  ridicule.  Historians,  with 
little  generosity  towards  a  defeated  party,  have  sided  against 
the  levellers  ;  and  the  misfortune  of  failure  in  action  has 
doomed  them  to  censure  and  contempt.  Yet  they  only 
demanded  what  had  often  been  promised,  and  what,  on  the 
immutable  principles  of  freedom,  was  right.  They  did  but 
remember  the  truths  which  Cromwell  had  professed,  and 
had  forgotten.  Fearing  their  influence,  and  finding  the 
republicans  too  honest  to  become  the  dupes  of  his  ambi- 
tion, he  induced  such  members  of  the  house  of  commons  as 
were  his  ci-eatures  to  resign,  and  scattered  the  rest  with  his 
troops.  The  public  looked  on  with  much  indifference. 
This  parliament,  from  the  mode  of  its  convocation,  was 
unpopular ;  the  royalists,  the  army,  and  the  Presbyterians, 
alike  dreaded  its  activity.  With  it  expired  the  last  feeble 
hope  of  a  commonwealth.  The  successful  soldier,  at  once 
and  openly,  pleading  the  necessity  of  the  moment,  assumed 
supreme  power,  as  the  highest  peace-officer  in  the  realm. 

Cromwell  next  attempted  an  alliance  with  the  property  of 
the  country.  Affecting  contempt  for  the  regicide  republi- 
cans, who,  as  his  accomplices  in  crime,  could  not  forego  his 
protection,  he  prepared  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  lawyers, 
the  clergy,  and  the  moneyed  interest.  Here,  too,  he  was 
equally  unsuccessful.  The  moneyed  interest  loves  dominion 
for  itself ;  it  submits  reluctantly  to  dominion  ;  and  his 
Sept.  to  second  parliament,  chosen  on  such  principles  of  re- 
jan.522.  f°rrn  as  rejected  the  rotten  boroughs,  and,  limiting 
the  elective  franchise  to  men  of  considerable  estate, 
made  the  house  a  fair  representation  of  the  wealth  of  the 


1655.          THE  RESTORATION   OF  THE   STUARTS.  397 

country,  was  equally  animated  by  a  spirit  of  stubborn  defi- 
ance. It  first  resisted  the  decisions  of  the  council  of  Crom- 
well on  the  validity  of  its  elections,  next  vindicated  free- 
dom of  debate,  and,  at  its  third  sitting,  called  in  question 
the  basis  of  Cromwell's  authority.  "  Have  we  cut  down 
tyranny  in  one  person,  and  shall  the  nation  be  shackled 
by  another  ?  "  cried  a  republican.  "  Hast  thou,  like  Ahab, 
killed  and  taken  possession?"  exclaimed  a  royalist.  At 
the  opening  of  this  parliament,  Cromwell,  hoping  for  a 
majority,  declared  "  the  meeting  more  precious  to  him 
than  life."  The  majority  favored  the  Presbyterians,  and 
secretly  desired  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts.  The  pro- 
tector dissolved  them,  saying :  "  The  mighty  things  done 
among  us  are  the  revolutions  of  Christ  himself;  to  deny 
this  is  to  speak  against  God."  How  highly  the  public  mind 
was  excited  by  this  abrupt  act  of  tyranny,  is  evident  from 
what  ensued.  The  dissolution  of  the  parliament  was  fol- 
lowed by  Penruddoc's  insurrection. 

A  third  and  final  effort  could  not  be  adventured  till  the 
nation  had  been  propitiated  by  naval  successes,  and  vic- 
tories over  Spain  had  excited  and  gratified  the  pride  of 
Englishmen  and  the  zeal  of  Protestants.  "  The  Red  Cross," 
said  Cromwell's  admirers,  "  rides  on  the  sea  without  a  rival ; 
our  ready  sails  have  made  a  covenant  with  every  wind ; 
our  oaks  are  as  secure  on  the  billows  as  when  they  were 
rooted  in  the  forest :  to  others  the  ocean  is  but  a  road  ; 
to  the  English  it  is  a  dwelling-place."  The  fleets  of  the 
protector  returned  rich  with  the  spoils  of  Peru ;  and  there 
were  those  who  joined  in  adulation  : 

His  conquering  head  has  no  more  room  for  bays  : 
Let  the  rich  ore  forthwith  be  melted  down, 
And  the  state  fixed  by  making  him  a  crown ; 
With  ermine  clad  and  purple,  let  him  hold 
A  royal  sceptre,  made  of  Spanish  gold. 
The  question  of  a  sovereign  for  England  seemed  but  to 
relate  to  the  Protector  Cromwell  and  the  army,  or  King 
Cromwell  and  the  army ;  and,  for  the  last  time,  Cromwell 
hoped,  through  a  parliament,  to  reconcile  his  dominion  to 
the  English  people,  and  to  take  a  place  in  the  line  of  Eng- 


398  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  XL 

lish  kings.  For  a  season,  the  majority  was  not  unwilling ; 
the  scruples  of  the  more  honest  among  the  timid  he  over- 
came by  levity.  Our  oath,  he  would  say,  is  not  against  the 
three  letters  that  make  the  word  REX.  "  Royalty  is  but  a 
feather  in  a  man's  cap  ;  let  children  enjoy  their  rattle."  But 
here  his  ambition  was  destined  to  a  disappointment ;  the 
Presbyterians,  ever  his  opponents,  found  on  this  point  allies 
in  many  officers  of  the  army ;  and  Owen,  afterwards  elected 
president  of  Harvard  College,  drafted  for  them  an  effect- 
ual remonstrance.  In  view  of  his  own  elevation,  Cromwell 
had  established  an  upper  house  ;  its  future  members  to  be 
nominated  by  the  protector,  in  concurrence  with  the  peers. 
But  the  wealth  of  the  ancient  hereditary  nobility  continued ; 
its  splendor  was  not  yet  forgotten ;  the  new  peerage,  ex- 
posed to  the  contrast,  excited  ridicule  without  imparting 
strength  ;  the  house  of  commons  continually  spurned  at 
their  power,  and  controverted  their  title.  This  last 
Fet>84  parliament  was  also  dissolved.  Unless  Cromwell 
could  exterminate  the  Catholics,  convert  the  inflexi- 
ble Presbyterians,  chill  the  loyalty  of  the  royalists,  and  cor- 
rupt the  judgment  of  the  republicans,  he  never  could  hope 
the  cheerful  consent  of  the  British  nation  to  the  permanence 
of  his  government,  which  was  well  understood  to  be  co- 
extensive only  with  his  life.  It  was  essentially  a  state  of 
transition.  He  did  not  connect  himself  with  the  revolution, 
for  he  put  himself  above  it,  and  controlled  it ;  nor  with  the 
monarchy,  for  he  was  an  active  promoter  of  the  execution 
of  Charles ;  nor  with  the  church,  for  he  subverted  it ;  nor 
with  the  Presbyterians,  for  he  barely  tolerated  their  worship, 
without  gratifying  their  ambition.  He  rested  on  himself; 
his  own  genius  and  his  own  personal  resources  were  the 
basis  of  his  power.  Having  subdued  the  revolution,  there 
was  no  firm  obstacle  but  himself  to  the  restoration  of  the 
Stuarts,  of  which  his  death  was  necessarily  the  signal. 

The  accession  of  Richard  Cromwell  met  with  no  instant 
opposition  ;  for  the  tranquillity  of  expectation  preceded  the 
impending  change.  Like  his  father,  he  had  no  party  in  the 
nation;  unlike  his  father,  he  had  no  capacity  for  public 
affairs.  The  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  was  already  resolved 


CHAP.  XI.     THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  STUARTS.  399 

upon  by  the  people  of  England.  Richard  convoked  a  par- 
liament only  to  dissolve  it ;  he  could  not  control  the  army, 
and  he  could  not  govern  England  without  the  army.  In- 
volved in  perplexities,  he  resigned.  His  accession  had 
changed  nothing ;  his  abdication  changed  nothing ;  content 
to  be  the  scoff  of  the  proud,  he  acted  upon  the  conscious- 
ness of  his  own  incompetency,  and,  in  the  bosom  of  private 
life,  remote  from  wars,  from  ambition,  from  power,  he  lived 
to  extreme  old  age  in  the  serene  enjoyment  of  a  gentle  and 
modest  temper.  English  politics  went  forward  in  their 
course. 

The  council  of  officers,  the  revival  of  the  "  interrupted  " 
Long  Parliament,  the  intrigues  of  Fleetwood  and  Desbor- 
ough,  the  transient  elevation  of  Lambert,  were  but  a  series 
of  unsuccessful  attempts  to  defeat  the  wishes  of  the  people. 
Every  new  effort  was  soon  a  failure ;  and  each  successive 
failure  did  but  expose  the  enemies  of  royalty  to  increased 
indignation  and  contempt.  In  vain  did  Milton  forebode 
that,  "of  all  governments,  that  of  a  restored  king  is  the 
worst;"  nothing  could  long  delay  the  restoration.  The 
fanaticism  which  had  made  the  revolution  had  burnt  out, 
and  was  now  a  spent  volcano.  Among  the  possible  combi- 
nations of  human  character  is  that  of  an  obstinate  and 
almost  apathetic  courage,  a  sluggish  temperament,  a  narrow- 
ness of  mind,  and  yet  an  accurate  though  a  mean-spirited 
judgment,  which,  "like  a  two-foot  rule,"  measures  great 
things  as  well  as  small,  not  rapidly,  but  with  equal  indiffer- 
ence and  precision.  Such  a  man  was  Monk,  soon  to  be 
famous  in  American  annals,  from  whose  title,  as  Duke  of 
Albemarle,  Virginia  named  one  of  her  most  beautiful  coun- 
ties, and  Carolina  her  broadest  bay.  Sir  William  Coventry, 
no  mean  judge  of  men,  esteemed  him  a  drudge  ;  Lord  Sand- 
wich sneered  at  him  plainly  as  a  thick-skulled  fool ;  and  the 
more  courteous  Pepys  paints  him  as  "a  heavy,  dull  man, 
who  will  not  hinder  business,  and  cannot  aid  it."  When 
Monk  marched  his  army  from  Scotland  into  England,  he  was 
only  the  instrument  of  the  restoration,  not  its  author.  Origi- 
nally a  soldier  of  fortune  in  the  army  of  the  royalists,  he  had 
deserted  his  party,  served  against  Charles  I.,  and  readily 


400  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XL 

offered  to  Cromwell  his  support.  He  had  no  adequate 
conceptions  of  the  nature  or  the  value  of  liberty,  was  no 
statesman,  and  was  destitute  of  true  dignity  of  character. 
Incapable  of  laying  among  the  wrecks  of  the  English  con- 
stitution the  foundations  of  a  new  creation  of  civil  liberty, 
he  took  advantage  of  circumstances  to  make  his  own  for- 
tune, and  gratify  his  passion  for  rank  and  place.  He  cared 
nothing  for  England,  and  therefore  made  no  terms  for  his 
country,  but  only  for  himself.  He  held  the  Presbyterians 
in  check,  and,  prodigal  of  perjuries  to  the  last,  he  prevented 
the  adoption  of  nny  treaty  or  binding  compact  between  the 
returning  monarch  and  the  people. 

Yet  the  want  of  such  a  compact  could  not  restrain  the 
determined  desire  of  the  people  of  England.  All  classes 
demanded  the  restoration  of  monarchy,  as  the  only  effect- 
ual guarantee  of  peace.  The  Presbyterians,  like  repent- 
ant sinners  at  the  confessional,  hoping  to  gain  favor  by 
an  early  and  effectual  union  with  the  royalists,  contented 
themselves  with  a  vague  belief  that  the  martyrdoms  of 
Dunbar  would  never  be  forgotten ;  misfortunes  and  the  fate 
of  Charles  I.  were  taken  as  sureties  that  Charles  II.  had 
learned  moderation  in  the  school  of  exile  and  sorrow ;  and 
his  return  could  have  nothing  humiliating  for  the  English 
people,  for  it  was  the  nation  itself  that  recalled  its  sover- 
eign. Every  party  that  had  opposed  the  dynasty  of  the 
Stuarts  had  failed  in  the  attempt  to  give  England  a  govern- 
ment ;  the  constitutional  royalists,  the  Presbyterians,  the 
Independents,  the  Long  Parliament,  the  army,  had  all  in 
their  turn  been  unsuccessful ;  the  English,  preserving  a  latent 
zeal  for  their  ancient  liberties,  were  at  the  time  carried  away 
with  a  passionate  enthusiasm  for  their  hereditary  king.  The 
Long  Parliament  is  reassembled ;  the  Presbyterians,  expelled 
before  the  trial  of  Charles,  resume  their  seats ;  and  the  par- 
liament is  dissolved,  to  be  succeeded  by  a  new  assembly. 
The  king's  return  is  at  hand.  They  who  had  been  its  tardi- 
est advocates  endeavor  to  throw  oblivion  on  their  hesitancy 
by  the  excess  of  loyalty ;  men  vie  with  one  another  in  eager- 
ness for  the  restoration ;  none  of  them  is  disposed  to  gain 
the  certain  ill-will  of  the  monarch  by  proposing  conditions 


1660.  THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  STUARTS.  401 

which  might  not  be  seconded ;  they  forget  their  country  in 
their  zeal  for  the  king ;  they  forget  liberty  in  their  eagerness 
to  advance  their  fortunes;  a  vague  proclamation  on  the 
part  of  Charles  II.,  promising  a  general  amnesty,  fidelity  to 
the  Protestant  religion,  regard  for  tender  consciences,  and 
respect  for  the  English  laws,  was  the  only  pledge  from  the 
sovereign.  And  now,  after  twenty  years  of  storms,  the  light 
of  peace  dawns  in  the  horizon.  All  England  was  in  ecstasy. 
Groups  of  men  gathered  round  buckets  of  wine  in  the 
streets,  and  drank  the  king's  health  on  their  knees.  The 
bells  in  every  steeple  rung  merry  peals ;  the  bonfires  round 
London  were  so  numerous  and  brilliant  that  the  city  seemed 
encircled  with  a  halo ;  and  under  a  clear  sky,  with  a  favor- 
ing wind,  the  path  of  the  exiled  monarch  homewards  to 
the  kingdom  of  his  fathers,  was  serene  and  unruffled.  As  he 
landed  on  the  soil  of  England,  he  was  received  by 
infinite  crowds  with  all  imaginable  love.  The  shout- 
ing  and  general  joy  were  past  imagination.  On  the 
journey  from  Dover  to  London,  the  hillocks  all  the  way 
were  covered  with  people ;  the  trees  were  filled  ;  and  such 
was  the  prodigality  of  flowers  from  maidens,  such  the  accla- 
mations from  throngs  of  men,  the  whole  kingdom  seemed 
gathered  along  the  roadsides.  The  companies  of  the  city 
welcomed  the  king  with  loud  thanks  to  God  for  his  presence ; 
and  he  advanced  to  "Whitehall  through  serried  ranks  of 
admiring  citizens.  All  hearts  were  open ;  and,  on  the  even- 
ing of  his  arrival  in  the  capital  of  his  kingdom,  he  employed 
the  excitement  of  the  time  to  debauch  a  beautiful  woman 
of  nineteen,  the  wife  of  one  of  his  subjects. 

The  tall  and  swarthy  grandson  of  Henry  IV.  of  France 
was  naturally  possessed  of  a  disposition  which,  had  he  pre- 
served purity  of  morals,  had  made  him  one  of  the  most 
amiable  of  men.  It  was  his  misfortune,  in  very  early  life, 
to  have  become  thoroughly  debauched  in  mind  and  heart ; 
and  adversity,  usually  the  rugged  nurse  of  virtue,  made 
the  selfish  libertine  but  the  more  reckless  in  his  profligacy. 
His  neck  bowed  to  the  yoke  of  lewdness.  He  was  attached 
to  women,  not  from  love,  for  he  had  no  jealousy,  and  was 
regardless  of  infidelities;  nor  entirely  from  debauch,  but 
VOL.  i.  26 


402  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XL 

irom  the  pleasure  of  living  near  them,  and  sauntering  in 
their  company.  His  delight,  such  is  the  record  of  the  roy- 
alist Evelyn,  was  in  "  concubines,  and  cattle  of  that  sort ; " 
and,  from  his  entry  into  London  to  the  last  week  of  his  life,  he 
spent  his  time  in  toying  with  his  mistresses  and  listening 
to  love-songs.  Attached  to  the  faith  of  his  mother,  he  had 
no  purpose  so  seriously  at  heart  as  the  restoration  of  the 
Catholic  worship  in  England ;  but  even  this  intention  could 
not  raise  him  above  his  natural  languor.  Did  the  English 
commons  impeach  Clarendon,  Charles  II.  could  think  of 
nothing  but  how  to  get  the  Duchess  of  Richmond  to  court 
again.  Was  the  Dutch  war  signalized  by  disasters,  "  the 
king  did  still  follow  his  women  as  much  as  ever,"  and  took 
more  pains  to  reconcile  the  chambermaids  of  Lady  Castle- 
maine,  or  make  friends  of  the  rival  beauties  of  his  court, 
than  to  save  his  kingdom.  He  was  "  governed  by  his  lust, 
and  the  women,  and  the  rogues  about  him." 

The  natural  abilities  of  Charles  II.  were  probably  over- 
rated. He  was  incapable  of  steady  application.  He  read 
imperfectly  and  ill.  When  drunk,  he  was  a  good-natured, 
subservient  fool.  In  the  council  of  state,  he  played  with 
his  dog,  never  minding  the  business,  or  making  a  speech, 
-nemorable  only  for  its  silliness ;  and,  if  he  visited  the  naval 
magazines,  "  his  talk  was  equally  idle  and  frothy." 

The  best  trait  in  his  character  was  his  natural  kindliness. 
Yet  his  benevolence  was  in  part  a  weakness ;  his  bounty 
was  that  of  facility,  and  left  him  the  tool  of  courtiers  ;  and 
his  placable  temper,  incapable  of  strong  revenge,  was  equally 
incapable  of  affection.  He  so  loved  present  tranquillity  that 
he  signed  the  death-warrants  of  innocent  men  rather  than 
risk  disquiet ;  but  of  himself  he  was  merciful,  and  was  reluc- 
tant to  hang  any  but  republicans.  His  love  of  placid  en- 
joyments and  of  ease  continued  to  the  end.  On  the  last 
morning  of  his  life,  he  bade  his  attendants  open  the  curtains 
of  his  bed  and  the  windows  of  his  bed-chamber,  that  he 
might  once  more  see  the  sun.  "  For  God's  sake,  send  for  a 
Catholic  priest,"  said  he,  in  the  desire  for  absolution ;  but 
checked  himself,  lest  he  should  expose  the  Duke  of  York  to 
danger.  He  pardoned  al]  his  enemies,  no  doubt  sincerely. 


CHAP.  XI.     THE  RESTORATION  OF  THE  STUARTS.  403 

The  queen  sent  to  beg  forgiveness  for  any  offences.  "  Alas, 
poor  woman,  she  beg  my  pardon !  "  he  replied  :  "  I  beg  hers 
with  all  my  heart;  take  back  to  her  that  answer."  He 
expressed  some  regard  for  his  brother,  his  children,  his 
mistresses.  "Do  not  leave  poor  Nelly  Gwyn  to  starve," 
was  almost  his  last  commission. 

On  the  favor  of  this  lewd  king  of  England  depended  the 
liberties  of  New  England,  where  lewdness  was  held  a  crime 
and  adultery  punished  by  death  on  the  gallows. 


404  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIL 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE   RESTORED   DYNASTY   AND   ITS   FIRST   PARLIAMENT. 

IN  the  midst  of  universal  gladness  in  England,  the  tri- 
umph of  the  royalists  was  undisputed.  The  arms  of 
1660.  the  commonwealth,  and  the  emblems  of  republican- 
ism, were  defaced  and  burnt  with  every  expression 
of  hatred  and  scorn.  Of  the  democratic  party,  which  Crom- 
well had  subdued,  the  adherents  sought  obscurity  among 
the  crowd,  while  the  leaders  were  obliged  to  hide  them- 
selves from  the  fever  of  popular  anger.  The  melancholic 
inflexibility  and  the  self-denying  austerity  of  republicanism 
were  out  of  vogue ;  levity  and  licentiousness  came  in  fash- 
ion. Every  combination  that  had  opposed  royalty  had,  in 
the  eagerness  of  political  strife,  failed  to  establish  a  govern- 
ment on  a  permanent  basis.  England  remembered  that, 
under  its  monarchs,  it  had  elected  parliaments,  enjoyed 
the  trial  by  jury,  and  prospered  in  affluent  tranquillity. 
Except  in  New  England,  royalty  was  alone  in  favor.  The 
republic  in  England  was  fallen  into  extreme  disgrace ;  the 
democratic  revolution  would  have  completely  failed,  except 
that,  with  all  its  faults,  its  wildness,  and  its  extravagance, 
it  set  in  motion  the  ideas  of  popular  liberty  which  the  expe- 
rience of  happier  ages  was  to  devise  ways  of  introducing 
into  the  political  life  of  the  nation.  We  shall  presently 
see  that  the  hasty  and  immoderate  loyalty  of  the  moment 
doomed  the  country  to  an  arduous  struggle  and  the  neces- 
sity of  a  new  revolution. 

The  immediate  effects  of  the  restoration  were  saddened 
by  embittered  revenge.  All  the  regicides  that  were  seized 
would  have  perished,  but  for  Charles  II.,  whom  good  nature 
led  at  last  to  exclaim :  "  I  am  tired  of  hanging,  except  for 
new  offences."  All  haste  was,  however,  made  to  despatch 


1660.     FIRST  PARLIAMENT  OF  THE  RESTORATION.      405 

at  least  half  a  score,  as  if  to  appease  the  shade  of  Charles  I. ; 
and  among  the  selected  victims  was  Hugh  Peter,  once  the 
minister  of  Salem,  the  father-in-law  of  the  younger  Win- 
throp ;  one  whom  Roger  Williams  honored  and  loved,  and 
whom  Milton  is  supposed  to  include  among 

Men  whose  life,  learning,  faith,  and  pure  intent 
"Would  have  been  held  in  high  esteem  with  Paul. 
As  a  preacher,  his  homely  energy  resembled  the  eloquence 
of  Latimer  and  the  earlier  divines ;  in  Salem  he  won  general 
affection  ;  he  was  ever  striving  to  advance  the  interests  and 
quicken  the  industry  of  New  England,  and  had  assisted  in 
founding  the  earliest  college.  Monarchy  and  episcopacy 
he  had  repelled  with  fanatical  passion.  Though  he  was  not 
himself  a  regicide,  his  zeal  made  him  virtually  an  accom- 
plice, by  his  influence  over  others.  Nor  was  he  free  from 
that  bigotry  which  refuses  to  extend  the  rights  of  humanity 
beyond  its  own  altars  and  its  own  race ;  he  could  thank 
God  for  the  massacres  of  Cromwell  in  Ireland.  And  yet 
benevolence  was  deeply  fixed  in  his  heart ;  and  he  would 
plead  for  the  rights  of  the  feeble  and  the  poor.  Of  his 
whole  career,  it  was  said  that  "  many  godly  in  New  England 
dared  not  condemn  what  Hugh  Peter  had  done."  On  his 
trial,  he  was  allowed  no  counsel ;  and,  indeed,  his  death  had 
been  resolved  upon  beforehand,  though  even  false  witnesses 
did  not  substantiate  the  specific  charges  urged  against  him. 
His  last  thoughts  reverted  to  Massachusetts.  "  Go  home  to 
New  England,  and  trust  God  there,"  was  his  final  advice 
to  his  daughter.  At  the  gallows,  he  was  compelled 
to  wait  while  the  body  of  his  friend  Cooke,  who  had  oitfii. 
just  been  hanged,  was  cut  down  and  quartered  before 
his  eyes.  "  How  like  you  this  ? "  cried  the  executioner, 
rubbing  his  bloody  hands.  "  I  thank  God,"  replied  the 
martyr,  "  I  am  not  terrified  at  it ;  you  may  do  your  worst." 
To  his  friends  he  said  :  "  Weep  not  for  me  ;  my  heart  is  full 
of  comfort ; "  and  he  smiled  as  he  made  himself  ready  to 
leave  the  world.  Even  death  could  not  save  him  from  his 
enemies ;  cruelty  justified  itself  by  defaming  its  victim.  So 
perished  the  first  freeman  of  Massachusetts,  who  lost  his 
life  for  opposition  to  monarchy. 


406  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  XII 

1660-  The  regicides,  who  had  at  nearly  the  same  time 

Oct-  been  condemned,  did  not  abate  their  confidence  in 
their  cause.  Alone  against  a  nation,  pride  of  character 
blended  with  religious  fervor  and  political  enthusiasm. 
Death,  under  the  horrid  forms  which  a  barbarous  age  had 
devised,  they  could  meet  with  serenity.  The  voice  within 
their  breasts  still  approved  what  they  had  done ;  a  better 
world  seemed  opening  to  receive  them  ;  and,  as  they  as- 
cended the  scaffold,  their  composure  and  resignation  seemed 
to  call  on  earth  and  heaven  to  witness  how  unjustly  they 
suffered. 

But  it  was  not  enough  to  punish  the  living ;  vengeance 
invaded  the  tombs.  The  corpses  of  Cromwell,  Bradshaw, 
and  Ireton,  were,  by  the  order  of  both  houses  of  parliament, 
and  with  the  approbation  of  the  king,  disinterred,  dragged 
on  hurdles  to  Tyburn,  and  hanged  at  the  three  corners  of 
the  gallows.  In  the  evening,  the  same  bodies  were  cut 
down  and  beheaded,  amidst  the  merriment  of  the  Cavaliers. 
Of  the  judges  of  King  Charles  I.,  three  escaped  to  Amer- 
ica. Edward  Whalley,  who  had  first  won  laurels  in  the 
field  of  Naseby,  had  ever  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  Crom- 
well, and  remained  a  friend  to  the  Independents  ;  and  Wil- 
liam Goffe,  a  firm  friend  to  the  family  of  Cromwell,  a  good 

soldier,  and  an  ardent  partisan,  but  ignorant  of  the 
July  27.  true  principles  of  freedom,  arrived  in  Boston,  where 

Endecott,  the  governor,  received  them  with  courtesy. 
For  nearly  a  year,  they  resided  unmolested  within  the 
limits  of  Massachusetts,  where  they  preached  and  prayed, 

and  gained  universal  applause.  When  warrants  ar- 
1661.  rived  from  England  for  their  apprehension,  they  fled 

across  the  country  to  New  Haven,  where  it  was  es- 
teemed a  crime  against  God  to  bewray  the  wanderer  or 
give  up  the  outcast.  Yet  such  diligent  search  was  made 
for  them  that  they  never  were  in  security.  For  a  time 
they  removed  in  secrecy  from  house  to  house ;  sometimes 

concealed  themselves  in  a  mill,  sometimes  in  clefts  of 
Jmto24  tne  roc^s  kv  the  seaside ;  and  for  weeks  together,  and 
Aug.  19  even  for  months,  they  dwelt  in  a  cave  in  the  forest. 

Great  rewards  were  offered  for  their  apprehension ; 


1662.     FIRST  PARLIAMENT   OF   THE   RESTORATION.       407 

Indians  as  well  as  English  were  urged  to  scoxir  the  woods 
in  quest  of  their  hiding-place,  as  men  hunt  for  the  holes  of 
foxes.  When  the  zeal  of  the  search  was  nearly  over,  they 
retired  to  a  little  village  on  the  Sound ;  till  at  last  they 
escaped  by  night  to  an  appointed  place  of  refuge  in  Hadley, 
and  the  solitudes  of  the  most  beautiful  valley  of  New  Eng- 
land gave  shelter  to  their  wearisome  and  repining  age. 

John  Dixwell  was  more  fortunate.  He  was  able  to  live 
undiscovered,  and,  changing  his  name,  was  absorbed  among 
the  inhabitants  of  New  Haven.  He  married  and  lived 
peacefully  and  happily.  The  history  of  the  world,  which 
Raleigh  had  written  in  imprisonment,  with  the  sentence  of 
death  hanging  over  his  head,  was  the  favorite  study  of  the 
man  whom  the  laws  of  England  had  condemned  to  the 
gallows ;  and  he  ever  retained  a  firm  belief  that  the  spirit 
of  English  liberty  would  demand  a  new  revolution,  which 
was  achieved  in  England  a  few  months  before  his  end,  and 
of  which  the  earliest  rumors  may  have  reached  his  death- 
bed. 

Three  of  the  regicides,  who  had  escaped  to  the  Nether- 
lands, found  themselves,  in  the  territory  of  a  free  republic, 
less  secure  than  their  colleagues  in  a  dependent  col- 
ony.     They  were   surrendered  by  the   states,   and  A^2i9> 
executed  in  England. 

Retributive  justice,  thought  many,  required  the  execution 
of  regicides.  Another  victim  was  selected  for  his  genius 
and  integrity ;  such  was  the  terror  inspired  by  their  influ- 
ence. Now  that  all  England  was  carried  away  with  eager- 
ness for  monarchy,  Sir  Henry  Vane,  the  former  governor  of 
Massachusetts,  the  benefactor  of  Rhode  Island,  the  ever 
faithful  friend  of  New  England,  adhered  with  undaunted 
firmness  to  "  the  glorious  cause  "  of  popular  liberty ;  and, 
shunned  by  every  man  who  courted  the  returning  monarch, 
he  became  noted  for  the  most  "  catholic "  unpopularity. 
He  fell  from  the  affections  of  the  English  people,  when  the 
English  people  fell  from  the  jealous  care  of  their  liberties. 
He  had  ever  been  incorrupt  and  disinterested,  merciful  and 
liberal.  When  Unitarianism  was  persecuted,  not  as  a  sect, 
but  as  a  blasphemy,  Vane  interceded  for  its  advocate ;  he 


408  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XII. 

pleaded  for  the  liberty  of  Quakers  imprisoned  for  their 
opinions :  as  a  legislator,  he  demanded  justice  in  behalf  of 
the  Roman  Catholics ;  he  resisted  the  sale  of  Penruddoc's 
men  into  slavery,  as  an  aggression  on  the  rights  of  man. 
The  immense  emoluments  of  his  office  as  treasurer  of  the 
navy  he  voluntarily  resigned.  When  the  Presbyterians, 
though  his  adversaries,  were  forcibly  excluded  from  the 
house  of  commons,  he  also  absented  himself.  "When  the 
monarchy  was  overthrown  and  a  commonwealth  attempted, 
Vane  reluctantly  filled  a  seat  in  the  council ;  and,  resuming 
his  place  as  a  legislator,  amidst  the  floating  wrecks  of  the 
English  constitution,  he  clung  to  the  existing  parliament 
as  to  the  only  fragment  on  which  it  was  possible  to  rescue 
English  liberty.  His  energy  gave  to  the  English  navy  its 
efficient  organization ;  if  England  could  cope  with  Holland 
on  the  sea,  the  glory  of  preparation  is  Vane's.  His  labors 
in  that  remnant  of  a  parliament  were  immediately  turned 
to  the  purification  of  liberty  in  its  sources ;  and  he  is  be- 
lieved to  have  anticipated  every  great  principle  of  the 
modern  reform  bill.  He  steadily  resisted  the  usurpation 
of  Cromwell ;  as  he  had  a  right  to  esteem  the  sorrows  of 
his  country  his  private  sorrows,  he  declared  it  "  no  small 
grief  that  the  evil  and  wretched  principles  of  absolute  mon- 
archy should  be  revived  by  men  professing  godliness  ; "  and 
Cromwell,  unable  to  intimidate  him,  confined  him  to  Caris- 
brook  Castle.  Both  Cromwell  and  Vane  were  unsuccessful 
statesmen  :  the  first  desired  to  secure  the  government  of 
England  to  his  family;  the  other,  to  vindicate  it  for  the 
people. 

1662.  The   convention   parliament  had    excepted   Vane 

June.  from  the  indemnity,  on  the  king's  promise  that  he 
should  not  suffer  death.  It  was  now  resolved  to  bring  him 
to  trial ;  and  he  turned  his  trial  into  a  triumph.  Though 
"before  supposed  to  be  a  timorous  man,"  he  appeared 
before  his  judges  with  animated  fearlessness.  Instead  of 
offering  apologies  for  his  career,  he  denied  the  imputation 
of  treason  with  settled  scorn,  defended  the  right  of  Eng- 
lishmen to  be  governed  by  successive  representatives,  and 
took  glory  to  himself  for  actions  which  promoted  the  good 


1662.     PIRST  PARLIAMENT   OF  THE   RESTORATION.       409 

of  England,  and  were  sanctioned  by  parliament  as  the 
virtual  sovereign  of  the  realm.  He  spoke  not  for  his  life 
and  estate,  but  for  the  honor  of  the  martyrs  to  liberty 
that  were  in  their  graves,  for  the  liberties  of  England,  for 
the  interest  "  of  all  posterity  in  time  to  come."  Ho  had 
asked  for  counsel.  "  Who,"  cried  the  solicitor,  "  will  dare 
to  speak  for  you,  unless  you  can  call  down  from  the  gibbet 
the  heads  of  your  fellow-traitors ?  "  "I  stand  single,"  said 
Vane  ;  "  yet,  being  thus  left  alone,  I  am  not  afraid,  in  this 
great  presence,  to  bear  my  witness  to  the  glorious  cause, 
nor  to  seal  it  with  my  blood."  Such  true  magnanimity 
stimulated  the  vengeance  of  his  enemies;  " they  clamored 
for  his  life."  "  Certainly,"  wrote  the  king,  "  Sir  Henry 
Vane  is  too  dangerous  a  man  to  let  live,  if  we  can  honestly 
put  him  out  of  the  way."  It  was  found  he  could  not  hon- 
estly be  put  out  of  the  way ;  but  still,  the  solicitor  urged, 
"  he  must  be  made  a  sacrifice." 

The  day  before  his  execution,  his  friends  were  ad-  1662. 
mitted  to  his  prison  ;  and  he  cheered  their  drooping  June- 
spirits,  reasoning  calmly  on  death  and  immortality.  He 
reviewed  his  political  career,  and  could  say :  "  I  have  not 
the  least  recoil  in  my  heart  as  to  matter  or  manner  of  what 
I  have  done."  A  friend  spoke  of  prayer,  that  for  the  pres- 
ent the  cup  of  death  might  be  averted.  "  Why  should  we 
fear  death  ? "  answered  Vane ;  "  I  find  it  rather  shrinks 
from  me  than  I  from  it."  His  children  gathered  round  him, 
and  he  stooped  to  embrace  them,  mingling  consolation  with 
kisses.  "  The  Lord  will  be  a  better  father  to  you  ; "  "  be 
not  you  troubled,  for  I  am  going  home  to  my  Father." 
And  his  farewell  counsel  was :  "  Suffer  any  thing  from  men 
rather  than  sin  against  God."  When  his  family  had  with- 
drawn, he  declared  his  life  to  be  willingly  offered  to  confirm 
the  wavering  and  convince  the  ignorant.  The  defence  of 
popular  liberty  in  the  English  dominions  still  seemed  to 
him  the  noblest  office.  "I  leave  my  life  as  a  seal  to  they 
justness  of  that  quarrel.  Ten  thousand  deaths,  rather  than 
defile  the  chastity  of  my  conscience ;  nor  would  I,  for  ten 
thousand  worlds,  resign  the  peace  and  satisfaction  I  have  in 
my  heart." 


410  COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  XII. 

The  plebeian  Hugh  Peter  had  been  hanged ;  Sir  Henry 
Vane  was  to  suffer  on  the  block.  The  same  cheerful  resig- 
nation animated  him  on  the  day  of  his  execution.  As  the 
procession  moved  through  the  streets,  men  from  the  win- 
dows and  tops  of  houses  poured  out  prayers  for  him  as  he 
passed  by  ;  and  the  people  shouted  aloud  :  "  God  go 
June2i4  w^h  you."  Arrived  on  the  scaffold,  he  was  observable 
above  all  others  by  the  intrepidity  of  his  demeanor. 
Surveying  the  surrounding  multitude  with  composure,  he 
sought  to  awaken  in  their  souls  the  love  of  English  liberty. 
His  voice  was  overpowered  with  trumpets ;  finding  he 
could  not  bear  an  audible  testimony  to  his  principles,  he 
was  not  in  the  least  disconcerted  by  the  rudeness,  but  by 
the  serenity  of  his  manner  continued  to  show  with  what 
calmness  an  honest  patriot  could  die.  With  unbroken  trust 
in  Providence,  he  believed  in  the  progress  of  civilization  ; 
and,  while  he  reminded  those  around  him  that  "  he  had 
foretold  the  dark  clouds  which  were  coming  thicker  and 
thicker  for  a  season,"  it  was  still  "  most  clear  to  the  eye  of 
his  faith "  that  a  better  day  would  dawn  in  the  clouds. 
"  Blessed  be  God,"  exclaimed  he,  as  he  bared  his  neck  for 
the  axe,  "  I  have  kept  a  conscience  void  of  offence  to  this 
day,  and  have  not  deserted  the  righteous  cause  for  which  I 
suffer."  That  righteous  cause  was  civil  and  religious  lib- 
erty ;  in  the  history  of  the  world,  he  was  the  first  martyr  to 
the  principle  of  the  paramount  power  of  the  people  ;  and, 
as  he  had  predicted,  "  his  blood  gained  a  voice  to  speak  his 
innocence." 

Puritanism,  with  the  sects  to  which  it  gave  birth,  ceased 
to  sway  the  destinies  of  England.  The  army  of  Cromwell 
had  displayed  its  power  in  the  field ;  Milton  still  lived 
to  illustrate  what  poetry  it  could  create,  in  works  that 
are  counted  among  the  noblest  productions  of  the  human 
mind ;  Vane  proved  how  fearlessly  it  could  bear  testimony 
for  liberty  in  the  face  of  death ;  New  England  is  the  monu- 
ment of  its  power  to  establish  free  states.  The  ancient 
monarchy  of  England  would  not  yield  to  new  popular 
establishments ;  but  the  bloom  of  immortality  belongs  to 


1662.     FIRST  PARLIAMENT   OF   THE  RESTORATION.       411 

the  example  of  Vane,  to  the  poetry  of  Milton,  and,  let  us 
hope,  to  the  institutions  of  New  England. 

The  new  parliament  was  chosen  just  before  the  corona- 
tion, while  the  country  still  glowed  with  unreflecting  loy- 
alty. Few  Presbyterians  were  returned :  the  irresistible 
majority,  many  of  whom  had  fought  for  the  king,  was  all 
for  monarchy  and  prelacy.  Severe  enactments  restrained 
the  liberty  of  the  press ;  the  ancient  right  of  petition  was 
narrowed  and  placed  under  supervision.  The  restored 
king  was  a  papist;  but  whoever  should  affirm  him  to  be 
a  papist  was  incapacitated  from  holding  office  in  church  or 
state.  He  was  ready  "  to  conspire  with  the  king  of  France 
and  wicked  advisers  at  home,  to  subvert  the  religion  and 
liberty  of  the  English  people ; "  and  the  parliament,  in  its 
eagerness  to  condemn  rebellion,  renounced  for  itself  every 
right  of  withstanding  him  even  in  defensive  war. 

The  Presbyterians  formed  the  governing  body  in  many 
municipalities ;  the  sincere  ones  were  dislodged  by  an  act 
removing  all  incumbents  who  should  not  by  oath  declare  it 
unlawful  to  take  up  arms  against  the  king  on  any  pretence 
whatsoever ;  and,  for  the  future,  requiring  of  every  can- 
didate that,  within  the  year  before  the  election,  he  should 
have  received  the  sacrament  according  to  the  rites  of  the 
church  of  England. 

The  Book  of  Common  Prayer  and  the  ceremonies,  hav- 
ing never  been  abrogated  by  law,  revived  with  the  restora- 
tion. The  king  from  Holland  had  in  some  measure  laid 
asleep  the  watchfulness  of  those  whom  he  most  feared,  by 
promising  that  the  scruples  of  the  Presbyterians  should  be 
respected ;  and,  with  regard  to  ceremonies,  pretended  that 
he  would  have  none  to  receive  the  sacrament  on  the  knees 
or  to  use  the  cross  in  baptism.  Cranmer  saw  no  intrinsic 
diffeience  between  bishops  and  priests;  and  "the  old  com- 
mon, moderate  sort "  of  Episcopalians  had  taken  Episcopacy 
to  be  good,  but  not  necessary,  and  owned  the  reformed 
churches  of  the  continent  to  be  true  ones.  But  now  the 
royalist  majority  in  the  house  of  commons,  though  they 
restored  a  rubric  declaring  against  any  corporal  presence 
in  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  the  act  of  uniformity  went  beyond 


412  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XII. 

the  enactments  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  "  Episco- 
pal ordination  was  now,  for  the  first  time,"  so  writes  a  great 
English  historian,  "  made  an  indispensable  qualification  for 
church  preferment."  In  this  manner,  the  reformed  churches 
alike  of  England  and  the  continent  were  set  aside  and  ex- 
cluded from  fellowship  with  the  Anglican  church.  Every 
minister  who  should  not,  before  the  twenty-fourth  of  Au- 
gust, 1662,  publicly  declare  his  assent  and  consent  to  every 
thing  contained  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  was  by  his 
silence  deprived  of  his  benefice ;  and  on  that  day  nearly 
two  thousand  persons  gave  up  their  livings  rather  than 
stain  their  consciences.  The  subscription  was  required 
even  of  schoolmasters  :  at  one  swoop,  the  right  of  teaching 
was  taken  away  from  every  person  in  England,  except  high 
churchmen,  in  order  that  every  child  born  there  might  be 
brought  up  in  the  strongest  attachment  to  royal  authority, 
hereditary  right,  and  the  established  church. 

The  example  of  the  unselfish,  ejected  ministers  carried 
with  them  the  reflecting  middling  class  of  England.  An 
act  of  1664  made  attendance  at  a  dissenting  place  of  worship 
a  crime,  to  be  punished  on  conviction  without  a  jury  before 
a  single  justice  of  the  peace,  by  long  imprisonment  for  the 
first  and  second  offence  and  by  seven  years'  transportation 
for  the  third.  Moreover,  it  was  specially  provided  that  the 
exiled  Calvinist  could  not  be  shipped  to  New  England,  where 
he  would  have  found  sympathy  and  an  open  career.  The 
people  still  looked  to  their  old  evangelical  ministers  for 
instruction  and  consolation.  To  strike  a  death  blow  at 
non-conformity,  a  statute  of  1665  required  the  deprived  to 
swear  that  it  is  not  lawful  under  any  pretext  whatsoever 
to  take  arms  against  the  king,  and  that  they  would  not  at 
any  time  endeavor  any  alteration  in  church  or  state.  Those 
who  refused  this  oath  not  only  were  forbidden  to  support 
their  impoverished  families  by  teaching  :  a  new  invention 
of  cruelty  separated  them  from  their  old  friends  and  pro- 
hibited them  from  coming  within  five  miles  of  any  city, 
corporate  town,  borough  sending  members  to  parliament, 
or  towns  where  they  had  themselves  resided  as  ministers. 
The  Catholics,  led  by  the  Duke  of  York,  supported  the  act 


1660.     FIRST  PARLIAMENT   OF   THE   RESTORATION.       413 

of  uniformity  in  its  severest  form,  having  for  their  ulterior 
object  to  bring  about  a  union  between  themselves  and  all 
the  disfranchised  for  their  joint  relief. 

To  the  Anglican  church  this  total  expulsion  of  the  Cal- 
vinists  wrought  as  much  evil  as  the  extermination  of  the 
Huguenots  inflicted  on  the  kingdom  of  France.  The  Cal- 
vinists  were  driven  out  of  the  establishment  before  the 
ambiguity  as  to  the  mediatorial  powers  of  the  clergy  was 
removed  from  the  service-book  ;  before  universal  education, 
which  was  the  common  enjoyment  of  every  Scottish  and  of 
every  New  England  child,  had  been  secured  to  the  people 
of  England  ;  and  before  the  right  of  the  people  to  resist  a 
king  who  violates  the  constitution  was  acknowledged  and 
confirmed.  The  establishment  which  excluded  them  lost  all 
pretensions  to  being  the  church  of  the  whole  British  people  ; 
the  cardinal  points  of  their  creed  remained  behind  them  in 
the  thirty-nine  articles,  for  subscription  by  a  clergy  which 
till  the  accession  of  James  I.  had  accepted  that  creed  as 
indispensable,  and  since  that  epoch  had  been  gradually 
becoming  Arminian  ;  while  every  terrible  measure  of  op- 
pression against  the  dissenters  in  England,  in  Scotland,  or 
in  Ireland,  gave  new  energy  to  their  stronghold  in  America, 
deepening  the  gulf  which  divided  the  mother  country  from 
its  colonies. 

The  American  colonies  were  held,  alike  by  the  nature  of 
the  English  constitution  and  the  principles  of  the  common 
law,  to  be  subordinate  to  the  English  parliament,  and  bound 
by  its  acts,  whenever  they  were  specially  named  in  a  stat- 
ute or  were  clearly  embraced  within  its  provisions.  An 
issue  was  thus  made  between  England  and  America,  where, 
as  we  have  seen,  Massachusetts  refused  to  be  subject  to 
the  laws  of  parliament,  and  had  remonstrated  against  such 
subjection,  as  "the  loss  of  English  liberty."  The  Long 
Parliament  had  conceded  the  justice  of  the  remonstrance. 

On  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  the  convention 
parliament   granted   to   the   monarch   a  subsidy  of      ie«o. 
twelvepence  in  the  pound,  that  is,  of  five  per  cent, 
on   all  merchandise   exported   from   or  imported  into   the 
kingdom  of  England,  or  "  any  of  his  majesty's  dominions 


414  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  XII. 

thereto  belonging."   Doubts  arising,  not  whether  the  power 
of    parliament   was    coextensive   with   the    English 
1660.       empire,  but  what  territories   the   terms  of   the  act 
included,  they  were  interpreted  to  exclude  "  the  do- 
minions not  of  the  crown  of  England."     The  tax  was  never 
levied  in  the  colonies ;  nor  was  it  understood  that  the  col- 
onies were  bound  by  a  statute,  unless  they  were  expressly 
named. 

That  distinctness  was  not  wanting,  when  it  was  required 
by  the  interests  of  English  merchants.  The  navigation  act 
of  the  commonwealth  had  not  been  designed  to  trammel 
the  commerce  of  the  colonies  ;  the  convention  parliament, 
which  betrayed  the  liberties  of  England,  by  restoring  the 
Stuarts  without  conditions,  now,  by  one  of  the  most  memor- 
able statutes  in  the  English  maritime  code,  connected  in  one 
act  the  protection  of  English  shipping,  and  a  monopoly 
to  the  English  merchant  of  the  trade  with  the  colonies. 
In  the  reign  of  Richard  II.,  the  commerce  of  English  ports 
had  been  secured  to  English  shipping :  the  act  of  naviga- 
tion of  1651  had  done  no  more.  The  present  act  renewed 
the  same  provisions,  and  further  avowed  the  design  of 
sacrificing  the  natural  rights  of  the  colonists  to  English 
interests.  "No  merchandise  shall  be  imported  into  the 
plantations  but  in  English  vessels,  navigated  by  English- 
men, under  penalty  of  forfeiture."  The  harbors  of  the 
colonies  were  shut  against  the  Dutch  and  every  foreign 
vessel.  America,  as  the  asylum  of  the  oppressed,  invited 
emigrants  from  the  most  varied  climes.  Henceforward, 
none  but  native  or  naturalized  subjects  should  become  a 
merchant  or  factor  in  any  English  settlement,  excluding 
the  colonists  from  the  benefits  of  a  foreign  competition. 

American  industry  produced  articles  for  exportation  ;  but 
these  articles  were  of  two  kinds.  Some  were  produced  in 
quantities  only  in  America,  and  would  not  compete  in  the 
English  market  with  English  productions.  These  were 
enumerated,  and  it  was  declared  that  none  of  them,  that  is, 
no  sugar,  tobacco,  ginger,  indigo,  cotton,  fustic,  dyeing 
woods,  shall  be  transported  to  any  other  country  than  those 
belonging  to  the  crown  of  England,  under  penalty  of  for- 


1673.     FIRST  PARLIAMENT   OF  THE   RESTORATION.       415 

feiture ;  and,  as  new  articles  of  industry  of  this  class  grew 
up  in  America,  they  were  added  to  the  list.  But  such  other 
commodities  as  the  English  merchant  might  not  find  con- 
venient to  buy,  the  American  planter  might  ship  to  foreign 
markets ;  the  farther  off  the  better,  because  they  would  thus 
interfere  less  with  the  trades  which  were  carried  on  in  Eng- 
land. The  colonists  were  therefore,  by  a  clause  in  the  nav- 
igation act,  confined  to  ports  south  of  Cape  Finisterre. 

Hardly  had  time  enough  elapsed  for  a  voyage  or  two 
across  the  Atlantic,  before  it  was  found  that  the  English 
merchant  might  derive  still  further  advantages  at  the  cost 
of  the  colonists,  by  the  imposition  of  still  further  re- 
straints. A  new  law  prohibited  the  importation  of  1663. 
European  commodities  into  the  colonies,  except  in 
English  ships  from  England,  to  the  end  that  England  might 
be  made  the  staple  not  only  of  colonial  productions,  but  of 
colonial  supplies.  Thus  the  colonists  were  compelled  to  buy 
in  England  not  only  all  English  manufactures,  but  every 
thing  else  that  they  might  need  from  any  soil  but  their  own. 

The  activity  of  the  shipping  of  New  England,  which 
should  only  have  excited  admiration,  excited  envy  in  the 
minds  of  the  English  merchants.  The  produce  of  the  plan- 
tations of  the  southern  colonies  was  brought  to  New  Eng- 
land, as  a  result  of  colonial  exchanges.  To  the  extravagant 
fears  of  mercantile  avarice,  New  England  was  become 
a  staple.  In  1673,  parliament  therefore  resolved  to  1672-3. 
exclude  New  England  merchants  from  competing 
with  the  English  in  the  markets  of  the  southern  planta- 
tions ;  the  liberty  of  free  traffic  between  the  colonies  was 
accordingly  taken  away ;  and  any  of  the  enumerated  com 
modities  exported  from  one  colony  to  another  were  sub- 
jected to  a  duty  equivalent  to  the  duty  on  the  consumption 
of  these  commodities  in  England. 

By  degrees,  the  avarice  of  English  shopkeepers  became 
bolder ;  and  America  was  forbidden,  by  act  of  parliament, 
not  merely  to  manufacture  those  articles  which  might  com- 
pete with  the  English  in  foreign  markets,  but  even  to  supply 
herself,  by  her  own  industry,  with  those  articles  which  her 
position  enabled  her  to  manufacture  with  success  for  her 
own  wants. 


416  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XII. 

The  policy  of  Great  Britain,  with  respect  to  her  colonies, 
was  a  system  of  monopoly,  adopted  after  the  example  of 
Spain,  and  for  more  than  a  century  inflexibly  pursued,  in 
no  less  than  twenty-nine  acts  of  parliament.  The  colonists 
were  allowed  to  sell  to  foreigners  only  what  England  would 
not  take  ;  so  that  they  might  gain  means  to  pay  for  the 
articles  forced  upon  them  by  England. 

The  effects  of  this  system  were  baleful  to  the  colonies. 
They  could  buy  European  and  all  foreign  commodities  only 
at  the  shops  of  the  metropolis ;  and  thus  the  merchant  of 
the  mother  country  could  sell  his  goods  for  a  little  more 
than  they  were  worth.  England  gained  at  the  expense  of 
America.  The  profit  of  the  one  was  balanced  by  the  loss  of 
the  other. 

In  the  sale  of  their  products,  the  colonists  were  equally 
injured.  The  English,  being  the  sole  purchasers,  could 
obtain  those  products  at  a  little  less  than  their  fair  value. 
The  merchant  of  Bristol  or  London  was  made  richer ;  the 
planter  of  Virginia  or  Maryland  was  made  poorer.  No  new 
value  was  created;  one  lost  what  the  other  gained;  and 
both  parties  had  equal  claims  to  the  benevolence  of  the 
legislature. 

Thus  the  colonists  were  wronged,  both  in  their  purchases 
and  in  their  sales ;  the  law  "  cut  them  with  a  double  edge." 
The  English  consumer  gained  nothing  ;  for  the  surplus  colo- 
nial produce  was  re-exported  to  other  nations.  The  English 
merchant,  not  the  English  people,  profited  by  the  injustice. 
The  English  people  were  sufferers.  Not  that  the  undue 
employment  of  wealth  in  the  colonial  trade  occasioned  an 
injurious  scarcity  in  other  branches  of  industry  ;  for  the 
increased  productiveness  of  capital  soon  yielded  a  larger 
supply  than  ever  for  all  kinds  of  business.  But  the  naviga- 
tion act  involved  the  foreign  policy  of  England  in  contra- 
dictions ;  she  was  herself  a  monopolist  of  her  own  colonial 
trade,  and  yet  steadily  aimed  at  enfranchising  the  trade  of 
the  Spanish  settlements.  Hence  arose  a  set  of  relations 
which  we  shall  find  pregnant  with  consequences. 

In  the  domestic  policy  of  England,  the  act  increased  the 
tendency  to  unequal  legislation.  The  English  merchant 


1663.     FIRST  PARLIAMENT   OF   THE   RESTORATION.       417 

having  become  the  sole  factor  for  American  colonies,  and 
the  manufacturer  claiming  to  supply  colonial  wants,  the 
English  landholder  consented  to  uphold  the  artificial  system 
only  by  sharing  in  its  emoluments ;  and  in  1663  corn  laws 
began  to  be  enacted,  in  order  to  secure  the  profits  of  capital, 
applied  to  agriculture,  against  the  dangers  of  foreign  com- 
petition. Thus  the  system  which  impoverished  the  Virginia 
planter,  by  lowering  the  price  of  his  tobacco  crop,  oppressed 
the  English  laborer,  by  raising  the  price  of  his  bread ;  till 
at  last  a  whig  ministry  could  offer  a  bounty  on  the  exporta- 
tion of  corn. 

The  law  was  still  more  injurious  to  England,  from  its 
influence  on  the  connection  between  the  colonies  and  the 
metropolis.  Durable  relations  in  society  are  correlative, 
and  reciprocally  beneficial.  In  this  case,  the  statute  was 
made  by  one  party  to  bind  the  other,  and  was  made  on 
iniquitous  principles.  Established  as  the  law  of  the  strong- 
est, it  could  endure  no  longer  than  the  superiority  in  force. 
It  converted  commerce,  which  should  be  the  bond  of  peace, 
into  a  source  of  rankling  hostility,  scattered  the  certain 
seeds  of  a  civil  war,  and  contained  a  pledge  of  the  ultimate 
independence  of  America. 

To  the  colonists,  the  navigation  act  was,  at  the  time,  an 
unmitigated  evil ;  for  the  prohibition  of  planting  tobacco  in 
England  and  Ireland  was  a  useless  mockery.  As  a  mode 
of  taxing  the  colonies,  the  monopoly  was  a  failure  ;  the 
contribution  was  made  to  the  pocket  of  the  merchant,  not 
to  the  treasury  of  the  metropolis. 

The  usual  excuse  for  colonial  restrictions  is  founded  on 
the  principle  that  colonies  were  established  at  the  cost  of  the 
mother  country  for  that  very  purpose.  In  the  case  of  the 
American  colonies,  the  apology  cannot  be  urged.  The  state 
founded  none  of  them.  The  colonists  escaped  from  the 
mother  country,  and  had,  at  their  own  cost  and  by  their 
own  toil,  made  for  themselves  dwellings  in  the  New  World. 
Virginia  was  founded  by  a  private  company ;  New  England 
was  the  home  of  exiles.  England  first  thrust  them  out; 
and  owned  them  as  her  children  only  to  oppress  them ! 

Again,  it  was  said  that  the  commercial  losses  of  the 
VOL.  i.  27 


418  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XII. 

colonists  were  compensated  by  protection.  But  the  con- 
nection with  the  mother  country  was  fraught  with  danger ; 
for  the  rivalry  of  European  nations  did  but  transfer  the 
scenes  of  their  bloody  feuds  to  the  wilds  of  America. 

The  monopoly,  it  must  be  allowed,  was  of  the  least 
injurious  kind.  It  was  conceded  not  to  an  individual,  nor 
to  a  company,  nor  to  a  single  city,  but  was  open  to  the 
competition  of  all  Englishmen. 

The  history  of  the  navigation  act  would  be  incomplete, 
were  it  not  added  that,  whatever  party  obtained  a  majority, 
it  never,  till  the  colonies  gained  great  strength,  occurred 
to  the  British  parliament  that  the  legislation  was  a  wrong. 
Bigotry  is  not  exclusively  a  passion  of  religious  supersti- 
tion. Its  root  is  in  the  human  heart,  and  it  is  reproduced 
in  every  age.  Blinding  the  intellectual  eye  and  compre- 
hending no  passion  but  its  own,  it  is  the  passionate  and 
partial  defence  of  an  existing  interest.  The  Antonines 
of  Rome,  or,  not  to  go  beyond  English  history,  Elizabeth, 
James  I.,  and  Charles  I.,  did  not  question  the  divine  right 
of  absolute  power.  The  Cavaliers,  in  the  civil  war,  did  not 
doubt  the  sanctity  of  the  privileges  of  birth ;  and  now  the 
English  parliament,  as  the  instrument  of  mercantile  fears 
and  covetousness,  had  no  scruple  in  commencing  the  legis- 
lation, which,  when  the  colonists  grew  powerful,  was,  by 
the  greatest  British  economist,  declared  to  be  "  a  manifest 
violation  of  the  rights  of  mankind." 


1661.  CONNECTICUT  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.  419 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

CHARLES   H.      CONNECTICUT   AND   RHODE    ISLAND. 

THE  commission  issued  by  the  king  on  the  first  day  ot 
December,  1660,  to  Clarendon  and  seven  others  as  a 
standing  council,  for  regulating  the  numerous  remote    j^i. 
colonies  and  governments,  "  so  many  ways  consider- 
able to  the  crown,"  included  the  names  of  the  Earl  of  Man- 
chester and  the  Viscount  Say  and  Seal,  who  were  sincere 
friends  to  New  England. 

Massachusetts,  which  had  been  republican,  but  never  reg- 
icide, strong  in  its  charter,  made  no  haste  to  present  itself 
in  England  as  a  suppliant.  "  The  colony  of  Boston,"  wrote 
Stuyvesant,  "  remains  constant  to  its  old  maxims  of  a  free 
state,  dependent  on  none  but  God."  Had  the  king  resolved 
on  sending  them  a  governor,  the  several  towns  and  churches 
throughout  the  whole  country  were  resolved  to  oppose  him. 

The  colonies  of  Plymouth,  of  Hartford,  and  of  New 
Haven,  not  less  than  of  Rhode  Island,  proclaimed  the  new 
king  and  acted  in  his  name;  and  the  rising  republic  on 
the  Connecticut  appeared  in  London  by  its  representative, 
the  younger  Winthrop.  They  had  purchased  their  lands 
of  the  assigns  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  and  from 
Uncas  they  had  bought  the  territory  of  the  Mohe-  M^'14> 
gans;  and  the  news  of  the  restoration  awakened 
a  desire  for  a  patent.  But  the  little  colony  proceeded 
warily:  they  draughted  among  themselves  the  instrument 
which  they  desired  the  king  to  ratify ;  and  they  could  plead 
for  their  possessions  their  rights  by  purchase,  by  conquest 
from  the  Pequods,  and  by  their  own  labor,  which  had  re- 
deemed the  wilderness.  A  letter  was  also  addressed  from 
Connecticut  to  the  aged  Lord  Say  and  Seal,  its  early  friend. 

The  venerable  man,  too  aged  for  active  exertion,  secured 


420  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIII. 

for  his  clients  the  kind  offices  of  the  lord  chamberlain,  the 
Earl  of  Manchester,  a  man  "  of  an  obliging  temper,  univer- 
sally beloved,   being   of    a   virtuous   and    generous 
1661.       mind."     "  Indeed  he  was  a  noble  and  a  worthy  lord, 
and  one  that  loved  the  godly."     "  He  and  Lord  Say 
did  join  together,  that  their  godly  friends  in  New  England 
might  enjoy  their  just  rights  and  liberties." 

But  the  chief  happiness  of  Connecticut  was  in  the  selec- 
tion of  its  agent.  In  the  younger  Winthrop,  the  qualities 
of  human  excellence  were  mingled  in  such  happy  propor- 
tions that,  while  he  always  wore  an  air  of  contentment, 
no  enterprise  in  which  he  engaged  seemed  too  lofty  for  his 
powers.  Even  as  a  child,  he  had  been  the  pride  of  his 
father's  house  ;  he  had  received  the  best  instruction  which 
Cambridge  and  Dublin  could  afford  ;  and  had  perfected  his 
education  by  visiting,  in  part  at  least,  in  the  public  service, 
not  Holland  and  France  only,  in  the  days  of  Prince  Maurice 
and  Richelieu,  but  Venice  and  Constantinople.  From  boy- 
hood his  manners  had  been  spotless ;  and  the  purity  of  his 
Boul  added  lustre  and  beauty  to  the  gifts  of  nature  and 
industry ;  as  he  travelled  through  Europe,  he  sought  the 
society  of  men  eminent  for  learning.  Returning  to  Eng- 
land in  the  bloom  of  life,  with  the  fairest  promise  of  pre- 
ferment, he  preferred  to  follow  his  father  to  the  New 
World ;  regarding  "  diversities  of  countries  but  as  so  many 
inns,"  alike  conducting  to  "  the  journey's  end."  When  his 
father,  the  father  of  Massachusetts,  became  impoverished, 
the  pious  son,  unsolicited  and  without  recompense,  relin- 
quished his  large  inheritance,  that  "  it  might  be  spent  in 
furthering  the  great  work  "  in  Massachusetts ;  himself,  sin- 
gle-handed and  without  wealth,  engaging  in  the  enterprise 
of  planting  Connecticut.  Care  for  posterity  seemed  the 
motive  to  his  actions.  He  respected  learning  and  virtue 
and  ability  in  whatever  sect  they  might  be  found ;  and, 
when  Quakers  had  become  the  objects  of  persecution,  he 
was  unremitting  in  argument  and  entreaty  to  prevent  the 
taking  of  their  lives.  Master  over  his  own  mind,  he  never 
regretted  the  brilliant  prospects  he  had  resigned,  nor  com- 
plained of  the  comparative  solitude  of  New  London;  a 


1662.  CONNECTICUT  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.  421 

large  library  furnished  employment  to  his  mind  ;  the  study 
of  nature  according  to  the  principles  of  the  philosophy  of 
Bacon  was  his  delight,  for  "he  had  a  gift  in  understand- 
ing and  art ; "  and  his  home  was  endeared  by  a  happy 
marriage  and  "  many  sweet  children."  His  knowledge  of 
human  nature  was  as  remarkable  as  his  virtues.  He  never 
attempted  impracticable  things ;  but,  understanding  the 
springs  of  action  and  the  principles  that  control  affairs,  he 
calmly  and  noiselessly  succeeded  in  all  that  he  undertook. 
The  New  World  was  full  of  his  praises ;  Puritans  and 
Quakers  and  the  freemen  of  Rhode  Island  were  alike  his 
eulogists;  the  Dutch  at  New  York  had  confidence  in  his 
integrity.  In  history  he  appears  by  unanimous  consent, 
from  early  life,  without  a  blemish ;  and  it  is  the  beautiful 
testimony  of  his  own  father  that  "  God  gave  him  favor  in 
the  eyes  of  all  with  whom  he  had  to  do."  His  personal 
merits,  sympathy  for  his  family,  his  exertions,  the  petition 
of  the  colony,  and,  as  I  believe,  the  real  good-will  of 
Clarendon,  — for  we  must  not  reject  all  faith  in  gen-  j^2^ 
erous  feeling,  —  easily  prevailed  to  obtain  for  Con- 
necticut an  ample  patent.  The  courtiers  of  King  Charles, 
who  themselves  had  an  eye  to  possessions  in  America, 
suggested  no  limitations ;  and  perhaps  it  was  believed  that 
Connecticut  would  serve  to  balance  the  power  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

The  charter,  disregarding  the  hesitancy  of  New  Haven, 
the  rights  of  the  colony  of  New  Netherland,  and  the  claims 
of  Spain  on  the  Pacific,  connected  New  Haven  with  Hart- 
ford in  one  colony,  of  which  the  limits  were  extended  from 
the  Narragansett  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

With  regard  to  powers  of  government,  the  charter  was 
still  more  extraordinary.  It  confirmed  to  the  colonists  the 
unqualified  power  to  govern  themselves,  which  they  had 
assumed  from  the  beginning.  Nothing  was  changed  in 
their  internal  administrations,  nor  in  their  relations  to  the 
crown.  They  were  allowed  to  elect  all  their  own  officers, 
to  enact  their  own  laws,  to  administer  justice  without  ap- 
peals to  England,  to  inflict  punishments,  to  confer  pardons, 
and,  in  a  word,  to  exercise  every  power,  deliberative  and 


422  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIH. 

active.  The  king,  far  from  reserving  a  negative  on  their 
laws,  did  not  even  require  that  they  should  be  transmitted 
for  his  inspection ;  and  no  provision  was  made  for  the  in- 
terference of  the  English  government  in  any  event  what- 
ever. Connecticut  was  independent  except  in  name. 

After  his  successful  negotiations  and  efficient  concert 
in  founding  the  Royal  Society,  Winthrop  returned  to 
America,  bringing  with  him  a  name  which  England  honored 
and  which  his  country  should  never  forget.  The  amalga- 
mation of  the  two  colonies  could  not  be  effected  without 
collision ;  N"ew  Haven  had  been  unwilling  to  merge  itself 
in  the  larger  colony;  his  wise  moderation  was  able  to 
reconcile  the  jarrings,  and  blend  the  interests  of  the  united 
colonies.  The  universal  approbation  of  Connecticut  fol- 
lowed him  throughout  his  life.  Near  the  end  of  his  first 
year  of  office  as  governor,  the  general  court  propounded 
to  the  freemen  an  alteration  of  the  fundamental  law  which 
permitted  the  same  person  to  be  chosen  governor  only  once 
in  two  successive  years ;  and  in  the  ensuing  court  it  was 
voted  by  the  freemen  that  for  the  future  there  should  be 
liberty  of  a  free  choice  yearly  either  of  the  same  person  or 
another ;  and  for  twice  seven  years  he  continued  to  be 
annually  elected  to  the  office  of  her  chief  magistrate. 
1662  to  The  gratitude  of  Connecticut  was  reasonable.  The 
16761  charter  which  Winthrop  obtained  secured  to  her  an 
existence  of  unsurpassed  tranquillity.  Civil  freedom  was 
safe  under  the  shelter  of  masculine  morality ;  and  beggary 
and  crime  could  not  thrive  in  the  midst  of  severest  manners. 
From  the  first,  the  minds  of  the  yeomanry  were  kept  active 
by  the  constant  exercise  of  the  elective  franchise  ;  and,  ex- 
cept under  James  II.,  there  was  no  such  thing  in  the  land 
as  a  home  officer  appointed  by  the  English  king.  Con- 
necticut, from  the  first,  possessed  unmixed  popular  liberty. 
The  government  was  in  honest  and  upright  hands ;  the 
strifes  of  rivalry  never  became  heated  ;  the  magistrates 
were  sometimes  persons  of  no  ordinary  endowments ;  but, 
though  gifts  of  learning  and  genius  were  valued,  the  state 
was  content  with  virtue  and  single-mindedness ;  and  the 
public  welfare  never  suffered  at  the  hands  of  plain  men. 


CHAP.  XIII.   CONNECTICUT  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.  423 

Roger  Williams  had  ever  been  a  welcome  guest  at  Hart 
ford ;  and  "  that  heavenly  man,  John  Haynes,"  would  say 
to  him:  "I  think,  Mr.  Williams,  I  must  now  confesse  to 
you  that  the  most  wise  God  hath  provided  and  cut  out  this 
part  of  the  world  as  a  refuge  and  receptacle  for  all  sorts 
of  consciences."  There  never  existed  a  persecuting  spirit 
in  Connecticut ;  and  "  it  had  a  scholar  to  their  minister 
in  every  town  or  village."  Education  was  cherished;  re- 
ligious knowledge  was  carried  to  the  highest  degree  of 
refinement,  alike  in  its  application  to  moral  duties  and  to 
the  mysterious  questions  on  the  nature  of  God,  of  liberty, 
and  of  the  soul.  A  hardy  race  multiplied  along  the  alluvion 
of  the  streams,  and  subdued  the  more  rocky  and  less  invit- 
ing fields ;  its  population  for  a  century  doubled  once  in 
twenty  years,  in  spite  of  considerable  emigration.  Religion 
united  with  the  pursuits  of  agriculture,  to  give  to  the  people 
the  aspect  of  steady  habits.  The  domestic  wars  were  dis- 
cussions of  knotty  points  in  theology ;  the  concerns  of  the 
parish,  the  merits  of  the  minister,  were  the  weightiest 
affairs  ;  and  a  church  reproof  the  heaviest  calamity.  The 
strifes  of  the  parent  country,  though  they  sometimes  occa- 
sioned a  levy  among  the  sons  of  the  husbandmen,  never 
brought  an  enemy  over  their  border.  No  fears  of  midnight 
ruffians  disturbed  the  sweetness  of  slumber  ;  the  best  house 
required  no  fastening  but  a  latch,  lifted  by  a  string. 

There  was  nothing  morose  in  the  Connecticut  character ; 
it  was  temperate  industry  enjoying  the  abundance  which 
it  had  created.  No  great  inequalities  of  condition  excited 
envy  or  raised  political  feuds ;  wealth  could  display  itself 
only  in  a  larger  house  and  a  fuller  barn  ;  and  covetousness 
was  satisfied  by  the  tranquil  succession  of  harvests.  There 
was  venison  from  the  hills ;  salmon,  in  their  season,  not  less 
than  shad,  from  the  rivers ;  and  sugar  from  the  trees  of  the 
forest.  For  a  foreign  market  little  was  produced  beside 
cattle  ;  and  in  return  for  them  but  few  foreign  luxuries  stole 
in.  Even  so  late  as  1713,  the  number  of  seamen  did  not 
exceed  one  hundred  and  twenty.  The  soil  had  originally 
been  justly  divided,  or  held  as  common  property  in  trust 
for  the  public,  and  for  new  comers.  Forestalling  was  sue- 


424  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIII. 

cessfully  resisted ;  the  brood  of  speculators  in  land  inexo- 
rably turned  aside.  Happiness  was  enjoyed  unconsciously  ; 
beneath  a  rugged  exterior  humanity  wore  its  sweetest  smile. 
There  was  for  a  long  time  hardly  a  lawyer  in  the  land.  The 
husbandman  who  held  his  own  plough,  and  fed  his  own 
cattle,  was  the  great  man  of  the  age ;  no  one  was  superior 
to  the  matron,  who,  with  her  busy  daughters,  kept  the  hum 
of  the  wheel  incessantly  alive,  spinning  and  weaving  every 
article  of  their  dress.  Fashion  was  confined  within  narrow 
limits ;  and  pride,  which  aimed  at  no  grander  equipage  than 
a  pillion,  could  exult  only  in  the  common  splendor  of  the 
blue  and  white  linen  gown,  with  short  sleeves,  coming 
down  to  the  waist,  and  in  the  snow-white  flaxen  apron, 
which,  primly  starched  and  ironed,  was  worn  on  public 
days.  There  was  no  revolution  except  from  the  time  of 
sowing  to  the  time  of  reaping ;  from  the  plain  dress  of  the 
week  to  the  more  trim  attire  of  Sunday. 

Every  family  was  taught  to  look  to  the  Fountain  of  all 
good.  Yet  life  was  not  sombre.  Frolic  mingled  with  in- 
nocence :  religion  itself  sometimes  wore  the  garb  of  gayety  ; 
and  the  annual  thanksgiving  to  God  was,  from  primitive 
times,  as  joyous  as  it  was  sincere.  Nature  always  asserts 
her  rights,  and  abounds  in  means  of  gladness. 

One  question  distressed  and  divided  families.  Without 
inward  experience  of  the  truth  and  power  of  Christianity, 
no  one  of  a  congregation  of  Calvinists  was  admitted  to  take 
the  covenant  which  gave  admission  to  the  communion  table  ; 
and  the  rite  of  baptism  was  administered  to  the  children  of 
those  only  who  were  communicants.  There  grew  up  an  in- 
creasing number  of  parents  of  blameless  lives,,  who  did  not 
become  members  of  the  church,  and  yet  who  wished  bap- 
tism for  their  children.  Influenced  by  their  condition,  the 
general  court  of  Connecticut  expressed  a  desire  for  a  council 
of  ministers  of  the  four  confederated  Calvinistic  colonies. 
The  general  court  of  Massachusetts,  moving  in  the  same 
direction,  proposed  to  refer  the  question  to  a  general  synod, 
and  of  itself  went  so  far  as  to  appoint  fifteen  ministers 
of  its  own  colony  as  its  delegates.  Connecticut  readily  fol- 
lowed the  example;  but  Plymouth  kept  aloof;  and  the 


CHAP.  XIII.    CONNECTICUT  AND  RHODE   ISLAND.  425 

austere  colony  of  New  Haven,  guided  by  the  inflexible 
Davenport,  not  only  refused  to  send  delegates,  but  by  letter 
strongly  rebuked  the  measure  as  fraught  with  dangers  to 
religion.  Yet  the  synod,  representing  the  two  colonies 
which,  in  extent  of  territory  and  in  numbers,  far  outweighed 
the  rest,  sanctioned  the  baptizing  of  children  of  parents 
who  were  not  ready  to  assume  all  the  obligations  of  church 
members,  but  yet  would  promise  to  give  their  offspring  a 
Christian  education.  This  mode  of  settlement  was  called 
in  derision  "  the  half-way  covenant,"  which  the  most  rigid 
Calvinists  dreaded  and  abhorred. 

By  the  customs  of  the  Congregational  churches,  the  deci- 
sion of  the  synod  was  but  a  recommendation,  leaving  the 
decision  to  each  church  for  itself.  In  1662,  a  Massachusetts 
synod  repeated  the  advice  which  had  before  been  given  in 
conjunction  with  Connecticut ;  and  the  general  court  sent 
it  out  to  the  several  towns  "  for  the  consideration  of  all  the 
churches  and  people."  There,  in  Massachusetts,  legislative 
action  on  the  matter  ended.  Connecticut,  after  its  absorp- 
tion of  New  Haven,  recommended  the  new  and  less  exclu- 
sive system  to  the  churches  for  adoption  ;  but  the  majority 
of  them  adhered  stiffly  to  the  ancient  rule. 

The  frugality  of  private  life  had  its  influence  on  public 
expenditure.  Half  a  century  after  the  concession  of  the 
charter,  the  annual  expenses  of  the  government  did  not 
exceed  eight  hundred  pounds,  or  four  thousand  dollars ;  and 
the  wages  of  the  chief  justice  were  ten  shillings  a  day  while 
on  service.  In  each  county  a  magistrate  acted  as  judge  of 
probate,  and  the  business  was  transacted  with  small  expense 
to  the  fatherless. 

Education  was  always  esteemed  a  concern  of  deepest 
interest,  and  there  were  common  schools  from  the  first. 
Nor  was  it  long  before  a  small  college,  such  as  the  day  of 
small  things  permitted,  began  to  be  established ;  and  Yale 
owes  its  birth  "to  ten  worthy  fathers,  who,  in  1700,  as- 
sembled at  Branford,  and  each  one,  laying  a  few  volumes 
on  a  table,  said  :  '  I  give  these  books  for  the  founding  of  a 
college  in  this  colony.' " 

But  the  political  education  of  the  people  is  due  to  the 


426  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIH. 

happy  organization  of  towns,  which  here,  as  indeed  through- 
out all  New  England,  constituted  each  separate  settlement  a 
self-governing  democracy.  It  was  the  natural  reproduction 
of  the  system,  which  the  instinct  of  humanity  had  revealed 
to  our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors.  In  the  ancient  republics, 
citizenship  had  been  an  hereditary  privilege.  In  Connec- 
ticut, it  was  acquired  by  inhabitancy,  was  lost  by  removal. 
Each  town-meeting  was  a  legislative  body  ;  and  all  inhab- 
itants, the  affluent  and  the  more  needy,  the  reasonable 
and  the  foolish,  were  members  with  equal  franchises. 
There  the  taxes  of  the  town  were  discussed  and  levied ; 
there  its  officers  were  chosen ;  there  roads  were  laid  out  and 
bridges  voted  ;  there  the  minister  was  elected,  the  repre- 
sentatives to  the  assembly  were  instructed.  The  debate 
was  open  to  all ;  wisdom  asked  no  favors ;  the  churl  abated 
nothing  of  his  pretensions.  Whoever  reads  the  records 
of  these  village  commonwealths  will  be  perpetually  coming 
upon  some  little  document  of  political  sagacity,  which 
breathes  the  freshness  of  rural  legislation,  and  wins  a  dis- 
proportioned  interest  from  the  justice  and  simplicity  of  the 
times.  When  exertions  were  required  in  a  wider  field, 
the  public  mind  was  quickened  by  associations  with  the 
early  history  of  the  colony ;  and  when  Connecticut  emerged 
into  scenes  where  a  new  political  world  was  to  be  created, 
the  rectitude  that  had  ordered  the  affairs  of  a  neighbor- 
hood showed  itself  in  the  field  and  in  council. 

During  the  intervening  century,  we  shall  rarely  have 
occasion  to  recur  to  Connecticut :  its  institutions  were  per- 
fected, and,  with  transient  interruptions,  were  unharmed. 
Its  history  in  all  that  period  is  the  picture  of  colonial  happi- 
ness. To  describe  its  condition  is  but  to  enumerate  the 
blessings  of  self-government,  as  exercised  by  a  community 
of  freeholders,  who  have  leisure  to  reflect,  who  cherish  educa- 
tion, and  who  have  neither  a  nobility  nor  a  populace.  How 
dearly  it  remembered  the  parent  island,  is  told  by  the  Eng- 
lish names  of  its  towns.  Could  Charles  II.  have  looked 
back  upon  earth,  and  seen  what  security  his  gift  of  a  charter 
had  conferred,  he  might  have  gloried  in  an  act  which  re- 
deemed his  life  from  the  charge  of  having  been  unproduc- 


1663.  CONNECTICUT  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.  427 

tive  of  public  felicity.  The  contentment  of  Connecticut 
was  full  to  the  brim.  In  a  proclamation  under  the  great 
seal  of  the  colony,  it  told  the  world  that  its  days  under  the 
charter  were  "  halcyon  days  of  peace." 

Those  days  never  will  return.  Time,  as  it  advances, 
unfolds  new  scenes  in  the  grand  drama  of  human  existence, 
scenes  of  more  glory,  of  more  wealth,  of  more  action,  but 
not  of  more  tranquillity  and  purity. 

Rhode   Island   was   fostered    by   Charles   II.  with   still 
greater  liberality.     When  Roger  Williams  had  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  from  the  Long  Parliament  the      1652. 
confirmed  union  of  the  territories  that  now  constitute 
the  state,  he  returned  to  America,  leaving  John  Clarke    ^^f0 
as  the  agent  of  the  colony  in  England.     Never  did  a 
young  commonwealth  possess  a  more  faithful  friend  ; 
and  never  did  a  young  people  cherish  a  fonder  desire  for 
the    enfranchisement  of  mind.      "Plead  our  case," 
they  had  said  to  him  in  previous  instructions,  which    jj^fjj. 
Gorton  and  others  had  drafted,  "  in  such  sort  as  we 
may  not  be   compelled  to    exercise   any  civil  power  over 
men's  consciences ;  we  do  judge  it  no  less  than  a  point  of 
absolute   cruelty."     And  now  that   the   hereditary 
monarch  was  restored  and  duly  acknowledged,  they   Oc^8> 
had  faith  that  "  the  gracious   hand   of  Providence 
would  preserve  them  in  their  just  rights  and  privileges." 
"  It  is  much  in  our  hearts,"  they  urged  in  their  petition  to 
Charles  II.,  "  to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment,  that  a  most 
flourishing  civil  state  may  stand,  and  best  be  maintained, 
with  a  full  liberty  of  religious  concernments."     The  benev- 
olent monarch  listened  to  their  petition ;  it  is  more 
remarkable  that  Clarendon   exerted  himself  for  the       1662. 
men  who  used  to  describe  themselves  as  having  fled 
from  bishops  as  from  wolves ;  the  making  trial  of  religious 
freedom  in  a  nook  of  a  remote  continent  could  not  appear 
dangerous ;  it  might  at  once  build  up  another  rival  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  solve  a  curious  problem  in  the  history  of  man. 
The  charter,  therefore,  which  was  delayed  only  by 
controversies  about  bounds,  was  at  length  perfected, 
and,  with  new  principles,  imbodied  all  that  had  been 


428  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  XII? 

granted  to  Connecticut.    The  supreme  power  was  commits 
to  a  governor,  deputy  governor,  ten  assistants,  and  deput 
from  the  towns.     The   scruples   of   the   inhabitants  •«* 
so  respected  that  no  oath  of   allegiance  was  required 
them ;  the  laws  were  to  be  agreeable  to  those  of  EngL 
yet  with  the  kind  reference  "to  the  constitution  of  -.. 
place,  and  the  nature  of  the  people ; "  and  the  monarc  > 
proceeded  to  exercise,  as  his  brother  attempted  to  do  ir; 
England,  and  as  by  the  laws  of  England  he  could  not  exer- 
cise within  the   realm,  the   dispensing   power  in  matters 
of  religion.     "  No  person  within  the  said  colony,  at  any 
time  hereafter,  shall  be  any  wise  molested,  punished,  dis- 
quieted, or  called  in  question,  for  any  difference  in  opinion 
in  matters  of  religion ;  every  person  may  at  all  times  freely 
and  fully  enjoy  his  own  judgment  and  conscience  in  matters 
of  religious  concernments."     The  charter  did  not  limit  free- 
dom to  Christian  sects  alone ;  it  granted  equal  rights  to  the 
painim  and  the  worshipper  of   Fo.      To  the  disciples  of 
Confucius,  it  was,  on  the  part  of  a  Christian  prince,  no  more 
than  an  act  of  reciprocal  justice ;   the  charter  of   Rhode 
Island  was  granted  just  one  year  after  the  emperor  of  China 
had  proclaimed  the  enfranchisement  of  Christianity  among 
the  hundred  millions  of  his  people. 

No  joy  could  be  purer  than  that  of  the  colonists,  when 

the  news  was  spread  abroad  that  "  George  Baxter,  the 
Nov6.324.  most  faythful  and  happie  bringer  of  the  charter,"  had 

arrived.  On  the  beautiful  island,  long  esteemed  a 
paragon  for  fertility,  and  famed  as  one  of  the  pleasantest 
seaside  spots  in  the  world,  the  whole  body  of  the  people 
gathered  together,  "for  the  solemn  reception  of  his  maj- 
esty's gracious  letters  patent."  It  was  "  a  very  great  meet- 
ing and  assembly."  The  letters  of  the  agent  "  were  opened, 
and  read  with  good  delivery  and  attention;"  the  charter 
was  next  taken  forth  from  the  precious  box  that  held  it, 
and  "  was  read  by  Baxter,  in  the  audience  and  view  of  all 
the  people ;  and  the  letters  with  his  majesty's  royal  stamp, 
and  the  broad  seal,  with  much  beseeming  gravity,  were 
held  up  on  high,  and  presented  to  the  perfect  view  of  the 
people."  Now  their  republic  was  safe ;  Massachusetts, 


1676.  CONNECTICUT  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.  429 

which  had  denied  its  separate  existence,  must  yield  to  the 
mandate  of  their  sovereign.  And  how  could  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Rhode  Island  be  otherwise  than  grateful  to  Charles 
II.,  Avho  had  granted  to  them  all  that  they  had  asked,  with- 
out exacting  even  the  oath  of  allegiance  ? 

This  charter  of  government,  constituting,  as  it  then 
seemed,  a  pure  democracy,  and  establishing  a  political 
system  which  few  beside  the  Rhode  Islanders  themselveg 
believed  to  be  practicable,  remained  in  existence  till  it  be- 
came the  oldest  constitutional  charter  in  the  world.  It 
outlived  the  principles  of  Clarendon  and  the  policy  of 
Charles  II.  The  probable  population  of  Khode  Island,  at 
the  time  of  its  reception,  may  have  been  two  thousand  five 
hundred.  In  one  hundred  and  seventy  years,  that  number 
increased  forty-fold  ;  and  the  government,  which  was  hardly 
thought  to  contain  checks  enough  on  the  power  of  the 
people  to  endure  even  among  shepherds  and  farmers,  pro- 
tected a  dense  population  and  the  accumulations  of  a 
widely  extended  commerce.  Nowhere  in  the  world  were 
life,  liberty,  and  property  safer  than  in  Rhode  Island. 

The  thanks  of  the  colony  were  unanimously  voted  to  a 
triumvirate  of  benefactors :  to  "  King  Charles  of  England, 
for  his  high  and  inestimable,  yea,  incomparable  favor ; "  to 
Clarendon,  the  historian,  the  statesman,  the  prime  minister, 
who  had  shown  "to  the  colony  exceeding  great  care  and 
love ; "  and  to  the  modest  and  virtuous  Clarke,  the  persever- 
ing and  disinterested  envoy,  who,  during  a  twelve  years' 
mission,  had  sustained  himself  by  his  own  exertions  and  a 
mortgage  on  his  estate ;  whose  whole  life  was  a  con- 
tinued exercise  of  benevolence,  and  who,  at  his  death,  lere. 
bequeathed  all  his  possessions  for  the  relief  of  the 
needy  and  the  education  of  the  young.  Others  have  sought 
office  to  advance  their  fortunes ;  he,  like  Roger  Williams, 
parted  with  his  little  means  for  the  public  good.  He  had 
unsparing  enemies  in  Massachusetts,  and  left  a  name  on 
which  no  one  cast  a  shade. 

It  requires  but  small  acquaintance  with  authors  to  dis- 
cover those  who  bestow  praise  grudgingly,  even  where 
most  deserved.  Men  of  letters  have  the  passions  and  frail- 


430  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIII. 

ties  of  human  nature,  and  display  them  in  their  writings ; 
and  there  are  not  wanting  historical  inquirers  who  are 
swayed  by  some  latent  motive  of  party  to  impair  the  merits 
of  the  illustrious  dead,  and  envy  the  reputation  of  states. 
The  laws  of  Rhode  Island,  which  had  been  repeatedly  re- 
vised by  committees,  were  not  published  till  after  the  ex- 
citements consequent  on  the  Hanoverian  succession  ;  and 
we  find,  in  the  oldest  printed  copy  now  extant,  that  Roman 
Catholics  were  excepted  from  the  enjoyment  of  freedom  of 
conscience.  The  exception  was  not  the  act  of  the  people 
of  Rhode  Island ;  nor  do  the  public  records  indicate  what 
committee  of  revisal  made  the  alteration,  for  which  the 
occasion  grew  out  of  English  politics,  and  which  kept  its 
place  in  the  code  only  so  long  as  there  were  no  Roman 
Catholics  in  the  colony.  When,  in  the  war  for  indepen- 
dence, French  ships  arrived  in  the  harbors  of  Rhode  Island, 
the  inconsistent  exception  was  immediately  erased  by  the 
legislature.  There  have  been  those  who,  arguing  plausibly 
from  the  printed  copy,  have  referred  this  exception  to  the 
first  general  assembly  that  met  at  Newport  after  the  patent 
arrived.  I  have  carefully  examined  the  records,  and  find 
that  the  people  of  Rhode  Island,  on  accepting  their  charter, 

affirmed  the  great  principle  of  intellectual  liberty  in 
March.  *ts  widest  scope.  In  March,  1664,  the  first  assembly 

did  little  more  than  organize  the  government  anew, 
and  repeal  all  laws  inconsistent  with  the  charter,  —  a  repeal 

which  precludes  the  possibility  of  the  disfranchising 
May  5.  of  Roman  Catholics.  In  May,  the  regular  session 

was  held,  and  religious  freedom  was  established  in 
the  very  words  of  the  charter,  which  embrace  not  Roman 
Catholics  merely,  but  men  of  every  creed  :  "  No  person 
shall  at  any  time  hereafter  be  any  ways  called  in  question 
for  any  difference  of  opinion  in  matters  of  religion."  In 
May,  1665,  the  legislature  asserted  that  "  liberty  to  all  per- 
sons, as  to  the  worship  of  God,  had  been  a  principle  main- 
tained in  the  colony  from  the  very  beginning  thereof ;  and 
it  was  much  in  their  hearts  to  preserve  the  same  liberty  for 
ever."  Nor  does  this  rest  on  their  own  testimony  in  their 
own  favor.  The  commissioners  from  England,  who  visited 


1665.  CONNECTICUT  AND  KHODE  ISLAND.  431 

Rhode  Island,  reported  of  its  people  :  "  They  allow  liberty 
of  conscience  to  all  who  live  civilly ;  they  admit  of  all  relig- 
ions." And  again,  in  1680,  the  government  of  the  colony 
could  say,  what  there  was  no  one  oppressed  individual  to 
controvert :  "  We  leave  every  man  to  walk  as  God  per- 
suades his  heart;  all  our  people  enjoy  freedom  of  con- 
science." To  Jews  who  had  inquired  if  they  could  find  a 
home  in  Rhode  Island,  the  assembly  of  1684  made  answer  : 
"  We  declare  that  they  may  expect  as  good  protection  here 
as  any  stranger,  not  being  of  our  nation,  residing  among  us, 
ought  to  have ;"  and  in  August,  1694,  the  Jews,  who  from  the 
time  of  their  expulsion  from  Spain  had  had  no  safe  resting- 
place,  entered  the  harbor  of  Newport  to  find  equal  protec- 
tion, and  in  a  few  years  to  build  a  house  of  God  for  a  Jew- 
ish congregation.  Freedom  of  conscience  "  to  every  man, 
whether  Jew,  or  Turk,  or  papist,  or  whomsoever  that  steers 
no  otherwise  than  his  conscience  dares,"  was,  from  the  first, 
the  trophy  of  Rhode  Island. 

What  more  shall  we  relate  of  it  in  this  early  period? 
That  it  obliged  each  freeman  to  subscribe  his  name  on  the 
outside  of  his  ballot  so  as  to  make  it  his  proxy  ?  that, 
in  1665,  it  divided  its  general  assembly  into  two  1665. 
houses,  —  a  change  which,  near  the  close  of  the  cen- 
tury, was  permanently  adopted  ?  that  it  ordered  the  towns 
to  pay  the  deputies  three  shillings  a  day  for  their  legisla- 
tive services  ?  that  it  was  importuned  by  Plymouth,  and 
vexed  by  Connecticut,  on  the  subject  of  boundaries  ?  that, 
asking  commercial  immunities,  it  recounted  to  Clarendon 
the  merits  of  its  bay,  "  in  very  deed  the  most  excellent  in 
New  England  ;  having  harbors  safe  for  the  biggest  ships 
that  ever  sayled  the  sea,  and  open  when  others  at  the  east 
and  west  are  locked  up  with  stony  doors  of  ice  "  ?  that  royal 
commissioners  sought  to  dismember  its  scanty  domain,  and 
make  a  king's  province  of  the  Narragansett  country?  It 
is  a  more  interesting  question,  if  the  rights  of  conscience 
and  the  freedom  of  mind  were  strictly  respected. 

The  royal  commissioners,  in  1665,  less  charitable  than 
the  charter,  required  of  all  the  oath  of  allegiance ;  the 
general  assembly,  scrupulous  in  its  respect  for  the  rights  of 


432  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIII. 

conscience,  would  listen  to  no  proposition  except  for  an 
engagement  of  fidelity,  and  due  obedience  to  the  laws,  as 
a  condition  of  exercising  the  elective  franchise.  This  en- 
gagement being  found  irksome  to  the  Quakers,  it  was  the 
next  year  repealed. 

There  had  been  great  difficulties  in  collecting  taxes,  and 
towns  had  refused  to  pay  their  rates.     In  1671,  a  law  was 
carried,  inflicting  a  severe  penalty  on  any  one  who  should 
speak  in  town-meeting  against  the  payment  of  the  assess- 
ments.    The  law  lost  to  its  advocates  their  re-elec- 

1672.  tion ;  in  the  next  year,  the  magistrates  were  selected 
from  the  people  called  Quakers,  and  freedom  of  de- 
bate was  restored.     George  Fox  himself  was  present  among 
his  Friends,  demanding  a  double  diligence  in  "guards  against 
oppression,"  in  the  firm  support  "of  the  good  of  the  people," 
and  in  the  instruction  of  "  all  the  people  in  their  rights." 

For  Maryland,  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  was  the  res- 
toration of  its  proprietary.     Virginia  possessed  far  stronger 
claims  for  favor  than  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut ; 
A^iw   an<^  Sir  William  Berkeley  himself  embarked  for  Eng- 
land as  her  agent.     But  she  was  unhappy  alike  in 
her  envoy  and  in  the  object  of  her  pursuit.     Berkeley  had 
zeal  for  the  advancement  of  his  own  interests ;   and  Vir- 
ginia asked  relief  from  the  pressure  of  the  navigation  act, 
which  Charles  II.  had  so  recently  ratified,  and  from  which 
relief  could  come  only  through  parliament.     Virginia  re- 
ceived no  guarantee  for  her  established  constitution  except 
in  the  instructions  to  her  governor;   no  reward  for  her 
loyalty.     To  satisfy  the  greediness  of  favorite  court- 
1669.       iers,  Virginia  in   1669  was  dismembered  by  lavish 

1673.  grants ;  and  in  1673  all  that  remained  of  the  colony 
was  given  away  for  a  generation,  as  recklessly  as  a 

man  would  give  away  a  life-estate  in  a  farm. 

Meantime,  Sir  William  Berkeley  made  use  of  his 
1663.  presence  in  England  for  his  own  account,  and  in  1663 
set  the  example  of  narrowing  the  limits  of  the  prov- 
ince for  which  he  acted,  by  embarking  with  Clarendon,  and 
six  other  principal  courtiers  and  statesmen  of  that  day,  in 
an  immense  speculation  in  lands.  Berkeley,  being  about 


1681.  CONNECTICUT  AND  RHODE  ISLAND.  433 

to  return  to  America,  was  perhaps  esteemed  a  convenient 
instrument.  King  Charles  was  caricatured  in  Holland,  with 
a  woman  on  each  arm,  and  courtiers  picking  his  pocket. 
This  time  they  took  large  provinces,  which,  if  divided 
among  the  eight,  would  have  given  to  each  a  tract  as 
extensive  as  the  kingdom  of  France. 

To  complete  the  picture  of  the  territorial  changes  made 
by   Charles    II.,   it  remains   to   be    added   that,   in 
1664,  he  enfeoffed  his  brother,  the  Duke  of  York,       low. 
with   the   country  between  Pemaquid  and  the   St. 
Croix,  and,  in  defiance  of  his  own  charter  to  Winthrop,  and 
the  possession  of  the  Dutch,  and  the  rights  of  ten  thousand 
inhabitants,  with  the  fine  country  from  Connecticut 
River  to  Delaware  Bay.     The  grant  of  Nova  Scotia       leer, 
to  Sir  Thomas  Temple  was  not  revoked ;  while,  with 
the  inconsistency  of  ignorance,  Acadia,  with  indefinite 
boundaries,  was  restored  to  the  French.    The  frozen       1669. 
zone  itself  was  invaded,  and  Prince  Rupert  and  his 
associates  were  endowed  with  a  monopoly  of  the 
regions  on  Hudson's  Bay.     In  1677,  the  proprietary       IOT. 
rights  to  New  Hampshire  and  Maine  were  revived, 
with  the  intent  to  purchase  them  for  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth.      After  Philip's  war  in  New  England,      lera 
Mount  Hope  was  hardly  rescued  from  a  courtier,  then 
famous  as  the  author  of  two  indifferent  comedies. 
The  charter  which  secured  a  large  and  fertile  prov-      tesi. 
ince   to  William   Penn,  and   thus   invested   philan- 
thropy with  executive  power  on  the  western  bank  of  the 
Delaware,  was  a  grant  from  Charles  II.     From  the  outer 
cape  of  Nova  Scotia  to  Florida,  with  few  exceptions,  the 
tenure  of  every  territory  was  changed.     Nay,  further,  the 
trade  with  Africa,  the  link  in  the  chain  of  universal  com- 
merce, that  first  joined  Europe,  Asia,  and  America  together, 
and  united  the  Caucasian,  the  Malay,  and  the  Ethiopian 
races,  was  given  away  to  a  company,  which  alone  had  the 
right  of  planting  on  the  African  coast. 

During  the  first  four  years  of  his  power,  Charles  II.  gave 
away  a  large  part  of  a  continent.  Could  he  have  continued 
as  lavish,  in  the  course  of  his  reign  he  would  have  given 
away  the  world. 

VOL.  i.  28 


434  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIV. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

MASSACHUSETTS    AND    CHARLES   II. 

MASSACHUSETTS  never  enjoyed  the  favor  of  the  Stuart 
dynasty.     The  virtual  independence  which  had  been 
leeo.       exercised  for  the  last  twenty  years  was  too  dear  to 
be  hastily  relinquished.     The  news  of  the  restora- 
tion, brought  by  the  ships  in  which  Goffe  and  Whal- 
Juiy27.  ley   were    passengers,   was   received   with   skeptical 
anxiety  ;  and  no  notice  was  taken  of  the  event.     At 
the  session  of  the  general  court  in  October,  a  motion  for  an 
address  to  the  king  did  not  succeed ;  affairs  in  Eng- 
Nov.  10.  land  were  still  regarded  as  unsettled.     At  last  it  be- 
came certain  that  the  hereditary  family  of  kings  had 
recovered  the  throne,  and  that  swarms  of  enemies  to  the  col- 
ony had  gathered  round  the  new  government ;  a  gen- 
Dec.  19.  eral  court  was  convened,  and  addresses  were  prepared 
for  the  parliament  and  the  monarch.     By  advice  of 
the  great  majority  of  elders,  no  judgment  was  expressed  on 
the  execution  of  Charles  I.  and  "  the  grievous  confusions  " 
of  the  past.     The  colonists  appealed  to  the  king  of  England, 
as  "  a  king  who  had  seen  adversity,  and  who,  having  himself 
been  an  exile,  knew  the  hearts  of  exiles."     They  prayed  for 
"  the    continuance   of   civil    and   religious    liberties,"   and 
against   complaints  requested   an   opportunity  of  defence. 
"  Let  not  the  king  hear  men's  words,"  such  was  their  peti- 
tion ;    "  your  servants  are  true  men,  fearing  God  and  the 
king.     We   could  not  live  without  the  public  worship. of 
God ;  that  we  might  therefore  enjoy  divine  worship  with- 
out human  mixtures,  we,  not  without  tears,  departed  from 
our  country,  kindred,  and  fathers'  houses.     Our  garments 
are  become  old  by  reason  of  the  very  long  journey  ;  our- 
selves, who  came  away  in  our  strength,  are,  many  of  us, 


1661.  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CHARLES  II.  435 

become  gray-headed,  and  some  of  us  stooping  for  age."  In 
return  for  the  protection  of  their  liberties,  they  promise  the 
blessing  of  a  people  whose  trust  is  in  God. 

At  the  same  time,  Leverett,  the  patriotic  and  able  agent 
of  the  colony,  was  instructed  to  make  interest  in  its  behalf 
with  members  of  parliament  and  the  privy  council ;  to  inter- 
cede for  its  chartered  liberties ;  to  resist  appeals  to  England, 
alike  in  cases  civil  or  criminal.  Some  hope  was  entertained 
that  the  new  government  might  be  propitious  to  New  Eng- 
land commerce,  and  renew  the  favors  which  the  Long  Par- 
liament had  conceded.  But  Massachusetts  never  gained  an 
exemption  from  the  severity  of  the  navigation  act  till  she 
ceased  to  demand  it  as  a  favor. 

Meantime,  a  treatise  on  the  Christian  commonwealth, 
which  Eliot,  the  apostle  of  the  Indians,  —  the  same  who  had 
claimed  for  the  people  a  voice  even  in  making  treaties,  — 
had  published  in  defence  of  constituting  government  through 
the  willing  self-organization  of  individuals  into  tens,  then 
hundreds,  then  thousands,  arriving  last  at  a  unity  of  the 
whole  in  a  strictly  popular  government,  was  condemned,  as 
too  full  of  the  seditious  doctrines  of  democratic  lib- 
erty. Upon  this  the  single-minded  author  did  not  Margie, 
hesitate  to  suppress  his  book,  and  in  guarded  lan- 
guage to  acknowledge  the  form  of  government  by  king, 
lords,  and  commons,  as  not  only  lawful,  but  eminent. 

A  letter  from  the  king,  expressing  general  good-will,  Feb.  is. 
could  not  quiet  the  apprehensions  of  the   colonists. 
The  committee  for  the  plantations  already  surmised     April, 
that  Massachusetts  would,  if  it  dared,  cast  off  its 
allegiance,  and  resort  to  an  alliance  with  Spain,  or  to  any 
desperate  remedy,  rather  than  admit  of  appeals  to  England. 
Upon  this  subject  a  controversy  immediately  arose;  and 
the   royal  government  resolved  to  establish  the  principle 
which  the  Long  Parliament  had  waived. 

It  was  therefore   not  without  reason   that   the   colony 
foreboded  collision  with  the  crown ;   and   after   a  full  re- 
port from   a  numerous  committee,   of  which   Bradstreet, 
Hawthorne,  Mather,  and  Norton,  were  members,  in 
May,  1661,  the  general  court  published  a  declaration      M»y. 


436  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIV. 

of  natural  and  chartered  rights.  In  this  paper, 
jvme'io.  which  was  probably  written  by  Thomas  Danforth, 

they  declare  their  liberties  under  God  and  their  pa- 
tent to  be  :  to  choose  their  own  governor,  deputy  governor, 
and  representatives ;  to  admit  freemen  on  terms  to  be  pre- 
scribed at  their  own  pleasure ;  to  set  up  all  sorts  of  officers, 
superior  and  inferior,  and  point  out  their  power  and  places  ; 
to  exercise,  by  their  annually  elected  magistrates  and  depu- 
ties, all  power  and  authority,  legislative,  executive,  and  judi- 
cial, without  appeal,  so  long  as  the  laws  were  not  repugnant 
to  the  laws  of  England ;  to  defend  themselves  by  force  of 
arms  against  every  aggression  ;  and  to  reject,  as  an  infringe- 
ment of  their  right,  any  parliamentary  or  royal  imposition 
prejudicial  to  the  country,  and  contrary  to  any  just  act  of 
colonial  legislation."  The  duties  of  allegiance  were  nar- 
rowed to  a  few  points,  which  conceded  neither  revenue  nor 
substantial  power. 

When  the  Puritan  commonwealth  had  thus  joined  issue 
with  its  sovereign,  by  denying  the  right  of  appeal  from  its 
courts,  and  with  the  English  parliament,  by  declaring  the 

navigation  act  an  infringement  of  its  chartered  rights, 
Ang.  7.  on  the  seventh  of  August,  more  than  a  year  after  the 

restoration,  Charles  II.  was  proclaimed  at  Boston, 
amidst  the  cold  observation  of  a  few  formalities.  Yet  the 
"  gratulatory  and  lowly  script,"  sent  him  on  the  same  day, 
interpreted  his  letter  as  an  answer  of  peace  from  "  the  best 
of  kings."  "  Royal  sir,"  it  continued,  excusing  the  tardiness 
of  the  colony  with  unseemly  adulation,  "your  just  title  to 
the  crown  enthronizeth  you  in  our  consciences ;  your  gra- 
ciousnes  in  our  affections ;  that  inspireth  unto  dutie,  this 
naturalizeth  unto  loyaltie ;  thence  wee  call  you  lord,  hence 
a  savior.  Mephibosheth,  how  prejudicially  soever  misrepre- 
sented, yet  rejoiceth  that  the  king  is  come  in  peace  to  his 
owne  house.  Nowe  the  Lord  hath  dealt  well  with  our  lord 
the  king,  may  New  England,  under  your  royal  protection, 
bee  permitted  still  to  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  this  strange 
land." 

The  young  republic  had  continued  the  exercise  of  its  gov- 
ernment as  of  right ;  complaints  against  her  had  multiplied ; 


1662.  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CHARLES  II.  437 

and  her  own  interests,  coinciding  with  the  express  orders 
of  the  monarch,  induced  her  to  send  envoys  to  London.    The 
country  was  divided  in  opinion  ;  the  large  majority  insisted 
on  sustaining  its  established  system  in  undiminished  force  ; 
others  were  willing  to  make  such  concessions  as  would  sat- 
isfy the  ministry  of  Clarendon.     The  former  party 
prevailed ;  and,  on  the  last  day  of  December,  John  ^31. 
Norton,  an  accomplished  scholar  and  rigid  Puritan, 
yet  a  friend  to  moderate  counsels,  was  joined  with  the  wor- 
thy but  not  very  able  Simon  Bradstreet  in  the  com- 
mission to   England.     In  January,   1662,  they  were  j^f^ 
instructed  to  persuade  the  king  of  the  loyalty  of  the 
colony  of  Massachusetts,  yet  to  "engage  to  nothing  preju- 
dicial to  their  present  standing  according  to  their  patent, 
and  to  endeavor  the  establishment  of  the  rights  and  priv- 
ileges then  enjoyed."     Letters  were  at  the  same  time  trans- 
mitted to  those  of  the  English  statesmen  on  whose  friendship 
it  was  safe  to  rely. 

King  Charles  received  the  messengers  with  courtesy ; 
and  they  returned  in  the  fall  with  the  royal  answer,  which 
probably  originated  with  Clarendon.  The  charter  was  con- 
firmed, and  an  amnesty  of  all  offences  during  the  late 
troubles  was  conditionally  promised.  But  the  king  di- 
rected a  repeal  of  all  laws  derogatory  to  his  authority ;  the 
taking  of  the  oath  of  allegiance ;  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice in  his  name ;  a  concession  of  the  elective  franchise  to 
all  freeholders  of  competent  estates  ;  and,  as  "  the  principle 
of  the  charter  was  the  freedom  of  the  liberty  of  conscience," 
the  allowance  of  that  freedom  to  those  who  desired  to  use 
"  the  booke  of  common  prayer,  and  perform  their  devotion 
in  the  manner  established  in  England." 

These  injunctions  were  not  wholly  unreasonable  in  them- 
selves ;  henceforward  legal  proceedings  were  transacted  in 
the  king's  name  ;  and,  after  a  delay  of  two  years,  the  right 
of  the  franchise  was  extended  to  all  freeholders  who  paid 
an  annual  tax  of  ten  shillings,  provided  the  general  court, 
on  certificates  to  their  orthodoxy  and  good  life,  should 
admit  them  as  freemen.  But  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
regarded  not  so  much  the  nature  of  the  requisitions  as  the 


438  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  XIV. 

power  by  which  they  were  made.  Complete  acquiescence 
would  have  seemed  to  recognise  in  the  monarch  the  right 
of  reversing  the  judgments  of  their  courts ;  of  dictating 
laws  for  their  enactment ;  and  of  changing  by  his  own 
authority  the  character  of  their  domestic  constitution.  The 
question  of  obedience  was  a  question  of  liberty,  and  gave 
birth  to  the  parties  of  prerogative  and  of  freedom. 

The  character  of  the  times  connected  religious  intoler- 
ance with  the  contest.  Episcopacy  and  monarchy  were 
feared  as  natural  allies :  Anabaptists  had  appeared  before 
the  ministry  in  England  as  plaintiffs  against  Massachusetts, 
and  could  boast  of  the  special  favor  of  Charles  II.  The 
principles  of  toleration  were  rapidly  gaining  ground,  and 
had  repeatedly  possessed  a  majority  in  one  branch  of  the 
legislature  ;  but,  now  that  Massachusetts  was  compelled  to 
resume  its  opposition  to  monarchy,  a  censorship  over  the 
press  was  established;  and  the  distrust  of  all  dissension 
from  the  established  forms  of  dissent  awakened  once  more 
the  energies  of  religious  bigotry.  The  representatives  of 
Massachusetts,  instead  of  complying  with  the  wishes  of 
the  king,  resolved  only  on  measures  conducive  "  to  the 
glory  of  God,  and  to  the  felicity  of  his  people  ; "  that  is,  to 
a  continuance  of  their  religious  institutions  and  their  demo- 
cratic independence. 

Meantime,  the  people  of  Massachusetts  were  not  ignorant 
how  great  dangers  they  incurred  by  refusing  to  com- 
1663.  ply  with  the  demand  of  their  sovereign.  In  January, 
1663,  the  council  for  the  colonies  complained  "that 
the  government  there  had  withdrawn  all  manner  of  corre- 
spondence, as  if  intending  to  suspend  their  absolute  obedi- 
ence to  the  authority  "  of  the  king.  False  rumors,  mingled 
with  true  reports,  assisted  to  incense  the  court  at  St.  James. 
Whalley  and  Goffe,  it  was  currently  asserted,  were  at  the 
head  of  an  army  ;  the  union  of  the  four  New  England  col- 
onies, was  believed  to  have  had  its  origin  in  the  express 
"purpose  of  throwing  off  dependence  on  England."  Sir 
Thomas  Temple,  Cromwell's  governor  of  Acadia,  had  re- 
sided for  years  in  New  England,  and  now  appeared  as  their 
advocate.  "  I  assure  you,"  such  was  Clarendon's  message 


16G4.  MASSACHUSETTS   AND  CHARLES   II.  439 

to  Massachusetts,  "  of  my  true  love  and  friendship  to  your 
country;  neither  in  your  privileges,  charter,  government, 
nor  church    discipline,  shall  you   receive   any  prejudice." 
Yet  the  news  was  soon  spread  abroad  that  commissioners 
would  be  appointed  to  regulate  the  affairs  of  New 
England ;   and,   early  in   1664,   there  was   room   to       i«54. 
believe  that  they  had  already  embarked,  and  that 
ships-of-war  would  soon  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  Boston. 

Precautionary  measures  were  promptly  adopted.  The 
patent  was  delivered  to  a  committee  of  four,  by  whom  it 
\vas  to  be  kept  safely  and  secretly  for  the  country.  To 
guard  against  danger  from  an  armed  force,  officers  and  sol- 
diers were  forbidden  to  land  from  ships,  except  in  small 
parties  ;  and  strict  obedience  to  the  laws  of  Massachusetts 
was  required  from  them.  The  train-bands  were  reviewed ; 
the  command  of  the  castle  at  the  entrance  of  Boston  harbor 
was  confided  to  the  trustworthy  officer  Davenport.  In  con- 
formity to  custom,  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  was  ap- 
pointed. In  that  age,  which  was  an  age  of  religious  faith, 
every  person  but  the  sick  was  required  to  attend  public 
worship ;  the  mother  took  with  her  the  nursling  whom  she 
could  not  leave.  To  appoint  a  day  of  fasting  on  a  special 
occasion,  was  to  call  together,  in  their  respective  assemblies, 
every  individual  of  the  colony,  and  to  direct  the  attention 
of  them  all  at  one  and  the  same  time  to  a  single  subject, 
under  the  sanction  of  the  invisible  presence  of  God.  No 
mode  of  diffusing  intelligence  could  equal  this,  which  reached 
every  one's  ear. 

In  July,  the  fleet,  equipped  for  the  reduction  of  the  July  23. 
Dutch  settlements  on  the  Hudson,  arrived  at  Boston, 
bearing  commissioners  nominated  by  the  Duke  of  York  hos- 
tile to  colonial  liberties.  "  The  main  end  and  drift "  of 
their  appointment  was  to  gain  "  a  good  footing  and  founda- 
tion for  a  further  advance  "  of  English  power,  by  leading  the 
people  to  submit  to  alterations  in  their  charter ;  especially 
to  yield  up  to  the  king  the  nomination  or  approbation  of 
the  governor,  and  the  chief  command  of  the  militia.  This 
instruction  was  secret ;  but  it  was  known  th^t  they  were 
charged  to  investigate  the  manner  in  which  the  charters  of 


440  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  XIV. 

New  England  had  been  exercised,  "  with  full  authority  to 
provide  for  the  peace  of  the  country,  according  to  the  royal 
instructions  and  their  own  discretion."  No  exertion  of 
power  was  immediately  attempted ;  but  the  people  of  Mas- 
sachusetts descried  the  approach  of  tyranny,  and  their  gen- 
eral court  assembled  to  meet  the  danger. 

It  was  agreed  to  levy  two  hundred  men  for  the  expected 
war  against  the  Dutch ;  and  this  was  done,  although  no 
requisition  for  their  services  had  been  made.  But  the  com- 
mission was  considered  a  flagrant  violation  of  chartered 
rights.  In  regard  to  the  obedience  due  to  a  government, 
the  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  distinguished  between 
natural  obedience  and  voluntary  subjection.  The  child 
born  on  the  soil  of  England  is  necessarily  an  English  sub- 
ject; but  they  held  to  the  original  right  of  expatriation, 
that  every  man  may  withdraw  from  the  land  of  his  birth, 
and  renounce  all  duty  of  allegiance  with  all  claim  to  pro- 
tection. This  they  themselves  had  done.  Remaining  in 
England,  they  acknowledged  the  obligatory  force  of  estab- 
lished laws ;  because  those  laws  were  intolerable,  they  had 
emigrated  to  a  new  world,  where  they  could  all  have  organ- 
ized their  government,  as  many  of  them  originally  did,  on 
the  basis  of  natural  rights  and  of  perfect  independence. 

It  had  seemed  good  to  them  to  retain  their  connection 
with  England  ;  but  this  connection  they  held  to  be  purely 
voluntary ;  originally  and  solely  established,  and  therefore 
exclusively  defined,  by  the  charter,  which  was  the  instru- 
ment of  that  voluntary  subjection,  and  the  only  existing 
compact  connecting  them  with  England.  The  right  of 
England  to  the  soil,  under  the  pretence  of  discovery,  they 
derided  as  a  popish  doctrine,  derived  from  Alexander  VI. ; 
and  they  pleaded,  as  of  more  avail,  their  just  occupation 
and  their  purchase  from  the  natives. 

As  the  establishment  of  a  commission  with  discretionary 

powers  was  not  specially  sanctioned  by  their  charter,  they 

resolved  to  resist  the  orders  of  the  king,  and  nullify  his 

commission.    While,  therefore,  the  fleet  was  engaged 

Sw£*io.  in  reducing  New  York,  Massachusetts,  in  September, 

published   an   order  prohibiting  complaints   to  the 


1662.  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CHARLES  II.  441 

commissioners ;  and,  preparing  a  remonstrance,  not  against 
deeds  of  tyranny  but  the  menace  of  tyranny,  not  against 
actual  wrong  but  against  a  principle  of  wrong,  on 
the  twenty-fifth  of  October  it  thus  addressed  King  n™6^ 

r*n         i          TT  °      wCl.  ZO. 

Charles  II. : 

"  DREAD  SOVEREIGN,  —  The  first  undertakers  of  this  plan- 
tation did  obtain  a  patent,  wherein  is  granted  full  and  abso- 
lute power  of  governing  all  the  people  of  this  place,  by  men 
chosen  from  among  themselves,  and  according  to  such  laws 
as  they  should  see  meet  to  establish.  A  royal  donation, 
under  the  great  seal,  is  the  greatest  security  that  may  be 
had  in  human  affairs.  Under  the  encouragement  and  se- 
curity of  the  royal  charter,  this  people  did,  at  their  own 
charges,  transport  themselves,  their  wives  and  families, 
over  the  ocean,  purchase  the  land  of  the  natives,  and  plant 
this  colony,  with  great  labor,  hazards,  cost,  and  difficulties ; 
for  a  long  time  wrestling  with  the  wants  of  a  wilderness 
and  the  burdens  of  a  new  plantation ;  having  also  now 
above  thirty  years  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  GOVERNMENT 
WITHIN  THEMSELVES,  as  their  undoubted  right  in  the  sight 
of  God  and  man.  To  be  governed  by  rulers  of  our  own 
choosing  and  lawes  of  our  own,  is  the  fundamental  privilege 
of  our  patent. 

"  A  commission  under  the  great  seal,  wherein  four  per- 
sons (one  of  them  our  professed  enemy)  are  irapowered  to 
receive  and  determine  all  complaints  and  appeals  according 
to  their  discretion,  subjects  tis  to  the  arbitrary  power  of 
strangers,  and  will  end  in  the  subversion  of  our  all. 

"  If  these  things  go  on,  your  subjects  here  will  either 
be  forced  to  seeke  new  dwellings  or  sink  under  intolerable 
burdens.  The  vigor  of  all  new  endeavors  will  be  enfeebled  ; 
the  king  himself  will  be  a  loser  of  the  wonted  benefit  by 
customs,  exported  and  imported  from  hence  into  England, 
and  this  hopeful  plantation  will  in  the  issue  be  ruined. 

"  If  the  aime  should  be  to  gratify  some  particular  gentle- 
men by  livings  and  revenues  here,  that  will  also  fail,  for  the 
poverty  of  the  people.  If  all  the  charges  of  the  whole 
government  by  the  year  were  put  together,  and  then 
doubled  or  trebled,  it  would  not  be  counted  for  one  of 


442  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIV. 

those  gentlemen  a  considerable  accommodation.  To  a  coali- 
tion in  this  course  the  people  will  never  come ;  and 
Oct.625.  it  w^l  be  hard  to  find  another  people  that  will  stand 
under  any  considerable  burden  in  this  country,  seeing 
it  is  not  a  country  where  men  can  subsist  without  hard  labor 
and  great  frugality. 

"  God  knows,  our  greatest  ambition  is  to  live  a  quiet  life, 
in  a  corner  of  the  world.  We  came  not  into  this  wilder- 
nesse  to  seek  great  things  to  ourselves  ;  and,  if  any  come 
after  us  to  seeke  them  heere,  they  will  be  disappointed. 
We  keep  ourselves  within  our  line  ;  a  just  dependence  upon, 
and  subjection  to,  your  majestic,  according  to  our  charter, 
it  is  far  from  our  hearts  to  disacknowledge.  We  would 
gladly  do  any  thing  within  our  power  to  purchase  the  con- 
tinuance of  your  favorable  aspect.  But  it  is  a  great  unhap- 
piness  to  have  no  testimony  of  our  loyalty  offered  but  this, 
to  yield  up  our  liberties,  which  are  far  dearer  to  us  than 
our  lives,  and  which  we  have  willingly  ventured  our  lives, 
and  passed  through  many  deaths  to  obtain. 

"  It  was  Job's  excellency,  when  he  sat  as  king  among  his 
people,  that  he  was  a  father  to  the  poor.  A  poor  people, 
destitute  of  outward  favor,  wealth,  and  power,  now  efry 
unto  their  lord  the  king.  May  your  majestie  regard  their 
cause,  and  maintain  their  right ;  it  will  stand  among  the 
marks  of  lasting  honor  to  after  generations." 

The  spirit  of  the  people  corresponded  with  this  address. 
Did  any  appear  to  pay  court  to  the  commissioners,  they 
became  objects  of  derision.  Even  the  writing  to  the  king 
and  chancellor  was  not  held  to  be  a  duty ;  the  compact  by 
the  charter  required  only  the  payment  to  the  king  of  one 
fifth  of  all  gold  and  silver  ore  ;  this  was  an  obligation  ;  any 
notice  of  the  king  beyond  this  was  only  by  way  of  civility. 
It  was  also  hoped  to  weary  the  English  government  by  a 
tedious  correspondence,  which  might  be  continued  till  the 
new  revolution,  of  which  they  foreboded  the  approach  in 
England.  It  is  sometimes  difficult  to  distinguish  the  in- 
stinct of  fanaticism  from  the  soundest  judgment ;  fanaticism 
is  sometimes  of  the  keenest  sagacity.  There  were  many  in 
New  England  who  confidently  expected  a  revival  of  liberty 


1665.  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CHAKLES  II.  443 

after  the  restoration,  and  what  was  called  "  the  slaying  of  the 
witnesses."  "  Who  knows,"  it  was  asked,  "  what  the  event 
of  this  Dutch  war  will  be  ?  "  The  establishment  of  arbitrary 
power  would  bring  in  its  train  arbitrary  taxation  for  the 
advantage  of  greedy  courtiers.  A  report  was  spread  that 
Massachusetts  was  to  yield  a  revenue  of  five  thousand  pounds 
yearly  for  the  king.  Public  meetings  of  the  people  were 
held ;  the  brave  and  liberal  Hawthorne,  at  the  head  of  a 
company  of  train-bands,  made  a  speech  which  royalists 
deemed  "  seditious  ; "  and  the  inflexible  Endecott,  of  whom 
Charles  II.  had  written  to  the  colony  as  of  a  person  not  well 
affected,  just  as  the  last  sands  of  life  were  running  out, 
addressed  the  people  at  their  meeting-house  in  Boston.  The 
aged  Davenport  was  equally  unbending.  "The  commis- 
sion," said  he  from  New  Haven,  "  is  but  a  tryal  of  our  cour- 
age ;  the  Lord  will  be  with  his  people  while  they  are  with 
him.  If  you  consent  to  this  court  of  appeals,  you  pluck 
down  with  your  own  hands  the  house  which  wisdom  has 
built  for  you  and  your  posterity." 

In  the  elections  in  the  spring  of  1665,  the  people  icec. 
sustained  their  government.  Richard  Bellingham, 
late  deputy  governor,  the  unbending,  faithful  old  man, 
skilled  from  his  youth  in  English  law,  perhaps  the  draughts- 
man of  the  charter,  certainly  familiar  with  it  from  its  be- 
ginning, was  chosen  to  succeed  Endecott.  Meantime,  letters 
of  entreaty  had  been  sent  to  Robert  Boyle  and  the  Earl  of 
Manchester ;  for,  from  the  days  of  Southampton  and  Sandys, 
of  Warwick  and  Say,  to  those  of  Burke  and  Chatham,  Amer- 
ica was  not  destitute  of  friends  in  England.  But  none  of 
them  would  perceive  the  reasonableness  of  complaining 
against  an  abstract  principle.  "  We  are  all  amazed,"  wrote 
Clarendon,  who,  says  Robert  Boyle,  was  no  enemy  to  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  "  you  demand  a  revocation  of  the  commission, 
without  charging  the  commissioners  with  the  least  matter  of 
crymes  or  exorbitances."  Boyle  echoed  the  astonishment : 
"  The  commissioners  are  not  accused  of  one  harmful  thirfg, 
even  in  your  private  letters."  The  statesmen  of  that  day 
in  Massachusetts  understood  the  doctrine  of  liberty  better 
than  the  chancellor  of  England.  A  century  later,  and 


444  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIV. 

there  were  none  in  England  who  did  not  esteem  the  com- 
mission an  unconstitutional  usurpation. 

To  Connecticut,  the  controversy  of  Massachusetts 

with  the  commissioners  was  fraught  with  benefits. 
It  facilitated  the  union  of  the  two  colonies  of  Hartford  and 
New  Haven ;  and,  as  the  commissioners  were  desirous  to 
make  friends  in  the  other  colonies,  they  avoided  all  angry 
collisions,  gave  no  countenance  to  a  claim  advanced  by  the 
Duke  of  Hamilton  to  a  large  tract  of  territory  in  the  colony, 
and,  in  arranging  the  limits  of  New  York,  though  the  char- 
ter of  Clarendon's  son-in-law  extended  to  the  river  Con- 
necticut, they  established  the  boundary,  on  the  main,  in 
conformity  with  the  claims  of  Connecticut  itself.  Long 
Island  went  to  the  Duke  of  York.  Satisfied  with  the  har- 
mony which  they  had  secured  by  attempting  nothing  but 
for  the  interests  of  the  colony,  the  commissioners  saw  fit  to 
praise  to  the  monarch  "the  dutifulness  and  obedience  of 
Connecticut,"  which  was  "  set  off  with  the  more  lustre  by 
the  contrary  deportment  of  Massachusetts." 

We  shall  soon  have  occasion  to  narrate  the  events  in 

which  Nicolls  was  engaged  at  New  York,  where  he 
Fetf^s  remained.  In  February,  1665,  Carr,  Cartwright,  and 

Maverick,  the  other  commissioners,  returning  to  Mas- 
sachusetts, desired  that,  at  the  next  general  election  day, 
the  whole  male  population  might  be  assembled  in  Boston, 
to  hear  the  message  from  the  king.  The  proposal  was 
rejected.  "He  that  will  not  attend  to  the  request,"  said 
Cartwright,  "is  a  traitor." 

The  nature  of  the  government  of  Rhode  Island,  and  its 
habitual  policy  of  relying  on  England  for  protection,  se- 
cured to  the  royal  agents  in  that  province  a  less  unfavorable 
reception.  Plymouth,  the  weakest  colony  of  all,  too  poor 
to  "  maintain  scholars  to  their  ministers,"  but  in  some  places 
making  use  of  "  a  guifted  brother,"  stood  firm  for  indepen- 
dence ;  although  the  commissioners,  flattering  the  long- 
cherished  hopes  of  the  inhabitants,  had  promised  them  a 
charter,  if  they  would  but  set  an  example  of  compliance, 
and  allow  the  king  to  select  their  governor  from  among 
three  candidates,  whom  they  themselves  should  nominate. 


1665.  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CHARLES  H.  445 

The  general  assembly,  after  due  consideration,  "with  many- 
thanks  to  the  commissioners,  and  great  protestations  of 
loyalty  to  the  king,"  "  chose  to  be  as  they  were." 

At  the  north,  the  conference  between  the  two  parties 
degenerated  into  an  altercation.  "  It  is  insufferable,"  said 
the  government  of  Massachusetts,  "  that  the  colony  should 
be  brought  to  the  bar  of  a  tribunal  unknown  to  its 
charter."  At  length,  in  May,  the  royal  commission- 
ers  asked  categorically :  "  Do  you  acknowledge  his 
majesty's  commission?"  The  colony  declined  giving  a 
direct  answer,  and  chose  rather  to  plead  his  majesty's 
patent. 

Tired  of  discussion,  they  resolved  to  act,  and  de- 
clared their  intention  of  holding  a  court  to  decide  May  23. 
a  cause  in  which  the  colony  was  cited  to  appear 
as  defendant.  The  general  court  forbade  the  procedure. 
They  refused  to  recede ;  the  morning  for  the  trial  dawned ; 
the  parties  had  been  summoned ;  the  commissioners  were 
preparing  to  go  on  with  the  cause,  when,  by  order  of  the 
court,  a  herald  stepped  forth,  and,  having  sounded  the 
trumpet,  made  proclamation,  in  the  name  of  the  king,  and 
by  authority  of  the  charter,  that,  in  observance  of  their 
duty  to  God,  to  the  king,  and  to  their  constituents,  the 
general  court  could  not  suffer  any  to  abet  his  majesty's 
honorable  commissioners  in  their  designs. 

The  herald  sounded  the  trumpet  in  three  several  places, 
repeating  his  proclamation.  We  may  smile  at  this  cere- 
mony ;  yet  when  had  the  voice  of  a  herald  proclaimed  the 
approach  of  so  momentous  a  contest  ?  It  was  not  merely  a 
struggle  of  the  general  court  and  the  commissioners,  nor 
yet  of  Charles  II.  and  Massachusetts :  it  was  the  dawning 
strife  of  the  new  system  against  the  old  system,  of  Ameri- 
can politics  against  European  politics. 

The  commissioners  could  only  wonder  that  the  May  24. 
arguments  of  the  king,  his  chancellor,  and  his  sec- 
retary, did  not  convince  the  government  of  Massachusetts. 
"  Since  you  will  misconstrue  our  endeavors,"  said  they,  "  we 
shall  not  lose  more  of  our  labors  upon  you ; "  and  so  they 
retreated  to  the  north.  There  they  endeavored  to  inquire 


446  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIV. 

into  the  bounds  of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine,  and  to  pre- 
pare for  the  restoration  of  proprietary  claims ;  but  Massa- 
chusetts was  again  equally  active  and  fearless  ;  its  governor 
and  council  forbade  the  towns  on  the  Piscataqua  to  meet, 
or  in  any  thing  to  obey  the  commission,  at  their  utmost 
peril. 

1665.  On  the  first  of  August,  the  general  court  of  Massa- 
Augg  1-  chusetts,  as  petitioners,  thus  addressed  their  com- 
plaints to  the  king:  "Your  poor  subjects  are  threatened 
with  ruin,  reproached  with  the  name  of  rebels,  and  your 
government,  established  by  charter,  and  our  privileges,  are 
violated  and  undermined ;  some  of  your  faithful  subjects 
dispossessed  of  their  lands  and  goods  without  hearing  them 
speak  in  their  cases ;  the  unity  of  the  English  colonies,  which 
is  the  wall  and  bulwark  under  God  against  the  heathen,  dis- 
countenanced, reproached,  and  undermined  ;  our  bounds  and 
limits  clipped  and  shortened.  A  just  dependence  upon  and 
allegiance  unto  your  majesty,  according  to  the  charter,  we 
have,  and  do  profess  and  practise,  and  have  by  our  oaths 
of  allegiance  to  your  majesty  confirmed ;  but  to  be  placed 
upon  the  sandy  foundations  of  a  blind  obedience  unto  that 
arbitrary,  absolute,  and  unlimited  power  which  these  gen- 
tlemen would  impose  upon  us,  who  in  their  actings  have 
carried  it  not  as  indifferent  persons  towards  us,  this  as  it 
is  contrary  to  your  majesty's  gracious  expressions  and  the 
liberties  of  Englishmen,  so  we  can  see  no  reason  to  submit 
thereto." 

In  Maine,  the  temper  of  the  people  was  more  favorable 
to  royalty ;  they  preferred  the  immediate  protection  of  the 
king  to  an  incorporation  with  Massachusetts,  or  a  subjec- 
tion to  the  heir  of  Gorges  ;  and  the  commissioners,  setting 
aside  the  officers  appointed  by  Massachusetts,  and  neglect- 
ing the  pretensions  of  Gorges,  issued  commissions  to  per- 
sons of  their  selection  to  govern  the  district.  There  were 
not  wanting  those  who,  in  spite  of  threats,  openly  ex- 
pressed fears  of  "the  sad  contentions"  that  would  follow, 
and  acknowledged  that  their  connection  with  Massachu- 
setts had  been  favorable  to  their  prosperity.  In  the  coun- 
try beyond  the  Kennebec,  which  had  been  recently  granted 


1666.  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CHARLES  II.  447 

to  the  Duke  of  York  as  a  province,  the  commissioners 
instituted  a  government  in  his  name  over  the  few  and 
scattered  inhabitants.  When  they  were  recalled,  they  re- 
tired in  angry  petulance,  threatening  the  disloyal  in  New 
England  with  retribution  and  the  gallows. 

The  frowardness  of  Massachusetts  was  visited  by  re- 
proofs from  the  English  monarch,  to  whom  it  was  well 
known  that  "  the  people  of  that  colony  affirmed  his  majesty 
had  no  jurisdiction  over  them."  It  was  resolved  to  trans- 
fer the  scene  of  negotiations.  By  a  royal  mandate 
of  April,  1666,  Bellingham  and  Hawthorne  were  com-  Ap^i'0i 
manded,  on  their  allegiance,  to  repair  to  England, 
with  two  or  three  others,  whom  the  magistrates  of  Massa- 
chusetts were  to  appoint  as  their  colleagues.  Till  the  final 
decision  of  the  claims  of  Gorges,  the  government  of  Maine 
was  to  continue  as  the  commissioners  had  left  it. 

It  belonged  to  the  general  court  to  execute  such  com- 
mands as  exceeded  the  powers  of  the  magistrates  ;  it 
was  therefore  convened  to  consider  the  letter  from  Sept.  11. 
the  king.  The  morning  of  the  second  day  was  spent 
in  prayer ;  six  elders  prayed.  The  next  day,  after  a  lec- 
ture, some  debate  was  had ;  and  petitions,  proposing  com- 
pliance with  the  king,  were  forwarded  from  Boston,  Salem, 
Ipswich,  and  Newbury.  "  Let  some  regular  way  be  pro- 
pounded for  the  debate,"  said  Bellingham,  the  governor, 
a  man  who  emphatically  hated  a  bribe.  "  The  king's  pre- 
rogative gives  him  power  to  command  our  appearance," 
said  the  moderate  Bradstreet ;  "  before  God  and  men  we 
are  to  obey."  "  You  may  have  a  trial  at  law,"  insinuated 
an  artful  royalist ;  "  when  you  come  to  England,  you  may 
insist  upon  it  and  claim  it."  "  We  must  as  well  consider 
God's  displeasure  as  the  king's,"  retorted  Willoughby; 
"the  interest  of  ourselves  and  of  God's  things,  as  his 
majesty's  prerogative ;  for  our  liberties  are  of  concernment, 
and  to  be  regarded  as  to  the  preservation  ;  for  if  the  king 
may  send  for  me  now,  and  another  to-morrow,  we  are  a 
miserable  people."  "  Prerogative  is  as  necessary  as  law," 
rejoined  the  royalist,  who  perhaps  looked  to  the  English 
court  as  an  avenue  to  distinction.  "  Prerogative  is  not 


448  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIV. 

above  law,"  said  Hawthorne,  ever  the  advocate  of  popular 
liberty.  After  much  argument,  obedience  was  refused. 
"  We  have  already,"  such  was  the  reply  of  the  general 
court,  "  furnished  our  views  in  writing,  so  that  the  ablest 
persons  among  us  could  not  declare  our  case  more  fully." 
This  decision  of  disobedience  was  made  at  a  time  when 
Louis  XIV.  of  France,  eager  to  grasp  at  the  Spanish  Neth- 
erlands, and  united  with  De  Witt  by  a  treaty  of  partition, 
had,  in  consequence  of  his  Dutch  alliance,  declared  war 
against  England.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  the  con- 
quest of  Canada  was  first  distinctly  proposed  to  New 
England ;  but  "  a  land  march  of  four  hundred  miles,  over 
rocky  mountains  and  howling  deserts,"  was  too  terrible  an 
obstacle.  Boston  equipped  privateers,  and  not  without 
success. 

At  the  same  time,  colonial  loyalty  did  not  content  itself 

with  barren  professions ;   it  sent  provisions  to  the 

Beef's.    English  fleet  in  the  West  Indies  ;  and  to  the  navy 

in    England,    a    ship-load    of    masts ;    "  a    blessing, 

mighty  unexpected,  and  but  for  which,"  adds  Pepys,  "  we 

must  have  failed  the  next  year." 

Secure  in  the  support  of  a  resolute  minority,  the 
1668.  Puritan  commonwealth,  in  1668,  entered  the  prov- 
ince of  Maine,  and  again  established  its  authority  by 
force  of  arms.  Great  tumults  ensued  ;  many  persons,  op- 
posed to  what  seemed  a  usurpation,  were  punished  for 
"irreverent  speeches;"  some  even  reproached  the  authori- 
ties of  Massachusetts  "as  traitors  and  rebels  against  the 
king;"  but  the  usurpers  made  good  their  ascendency  till 
Gorges  recovered  his  claims  by  adjudication  in  England. 
From  the  southern  limit  of  Massachusetts  to  the  Kennebec, 
the  colonial  government  maintained  its  independent  juris- 
diction. 

The  defiance  of  Massachusetts  was  not  followed  by  im- 
mediate danger.  The  ministry  of  Clarendon  was  fallen, 
and  he  himself  was  become  an  exile  ;  the  board  of  trade, 
projected  in  1668,  never  assumed  the  administration  of 
colonial  affairs,  and  had  not  vitality  enough  to  last  more 
than  three  or  four  years;  profligate  libertines  gained  the 


1671.  MASSACHUSETTS  AND  CHARLES  H.  449 

confidence  of  the  king's  mistresses,  and  places  in  the  royal 
cabinet.  While  Charles  II.  was  dallying  with  women,  and 
robbing  the  theatre  of  actresses ;  while  the  licentious  Buck- 
ingham,  who  had  succeeded  in  displacing  Clarendon,  wasted 
the  vigor  of  his  mind  and  body  by  indulging  in  every 
sensual  pleasure  "which  nature  could  desire  or  wit  invent;" 
while  Louis  XIV.  was  increasing  his  influence  by  bribing 
the  mistress  of  the  chief  of  the  king's  cabal,  —  England  re- 
mained without  a  good  government,  and  the  colonies  flour- 
ished in  purity  and  peace.  The  English  ministry  dared  not 
interfere  with  Massachusetts ;  it  was  right  that  the  stern 
virtues  of  the  ascetic  republicans  should  intimidate  the  mem- 
bers of  the  profligate  cabinet.  The  affairs  of  New  England 
were  often  discussed ;  but  the  privy  council  was  overawed 
by  the  moral  dignity  which  they  could  not  comprehend. 
There  were  great  debates,  in  which  the  king  took  part,  "  in 
what  style  to  write  to  New  England."  Charles  him- 
self commended  this  affair  more  expressly,  because  May  26. 
"  the  colony  was  rich  and  strong,  able  to  contest  with 
all  other  plantations  about  them  ; "  "  there  is  fear,"  said  the 
monarch,  "  of  their  breaking  from  all  dependence  on  this  na- 
tion." "  Some  of  the  council  proposed  a  menacing  letter, 
which  those  who  better  understood  the  peevish  and  touchy 
humor  of  that  colonie  were  utterly  against."  After 
many  days,  it  was  concluded  "  that,  if  any,  it  should  be  June  6. 
only  a  conciliating  paper  at  first,  or  civil  letter ;  for 
it  was  understood  they  were  a  people  almost  upon  the  very 
brink  of  renouncing  any  dependence  upon  the  crown."  "  In- 
formation of  the  present  face  of  things  was  desired,"  and 
Cartwright,  one  of  the  commissioners,  was  summoned  before 
the  council,  to  give  "  a  relation  of  that  country ; " 
but,  such  was  the  picture  that  he  drew,  the  council  June  21. 
were  more  intimidated  than  ever,  so  that  nothing 
was  recommended. beyond  "a  letter  of  amnesty."  By  Aug.  3. 
degrees,  it  was  proposed  to  send  a  deputy  to  New  Eng- 
land, under  the  pretext  of  adjusting  boundaries,  but  "  with 
secret  instructions  to  inform  the  council  of  the  condition  of 
New  England  ;  and  whether  they  were  of  such  power  as  to 
be  able  to  resist  his  majesty,  and  declare  for  themselves,  as 
VOL.  i.  29 


450  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIV. 

independent  of  the  crown."  Their  strength  was  reported 
to  be  the  cause  "  which  of  late  years  made  them  refractory." 

But  the  king  was  taken  up  by  "  the  childish,  simple, 
1671.  and  baby  face  "  of  a  new  favorite,  and  his  traffic  of 

the  honor  and  independence  of  England  to  the  king 
of  France.  The  Duke  of  Buckingham,  now  in  mighty  favor, 
was  revelling  with  a  luxurious  and  abandoned  rout ;  and 
for  the  moment  the  discussions  at  the  council  about  New 
England  were  fruitless. 


1670.  THE  ENGLISH  AND  THE  NATIVES.  451 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   ENGLISH   IN   NEW   ENGLAND  AND    THE    NATIVES. 

MASSACHUSETTS  prospered  by  the  neglect.  "  It  is,"  said 
Sir  Joshua  Child,  in  his  discourse  on  trade,  "  the 
most  prejudicial  plantation  of  Great  Britain ;  the  fru-  IBTO. 
gality,  industry,  and  temperance  of  its  people,  and 
the  happiness  of  their  laws  and  institutions,  promise  them 
long  life,  and  a  wonderful  increase  of  people,  riches,  and 
power."  It  enjoyed  the  blessings  of  self-government  and 
virtual  independence,  and  its  villages  were  already  the 
traveller's  admiration.  The  acts  of  navigation  were  not 
regarded ;  no  custom-house  was  established.  With  a  juris- 
diction which  now  stretched  to  the  Kennebec,  it  possessed 
a  widely  extended  trade.;  acting  as  the  carrier  for  nearly 
all  the  colonies,  and  sending  its  ships  into  the  most  various 
climes.  Vessels  from  Spain  and  Italy,  from  France  and 
Holland,  might  be  seen  in  Boston  harbor.  Commerce 
brought  wealth  to  the  colonists,  and  they  employed  it 
liberally ;  after  the  great  fire  in  London,  even  the  miserable 
in  the  mother  country  received  large  contributions.  The 
town  of  Portsmouth  agreed  for  seven  years  to  give  sixty 
pounds  a  year  to  Harvard  College,  which  continued  to 
afford  "  schismaticks  to  the  church." 

Settlements  extended ;  prosperity  was  universal.  Beggary 
was  unknown  ;  theft  was  rare.  If  "  strange  new  fashions  " 
prevailed  among  "  the  younger  sort  of  women,"  if  "  super- 
fluous ribbons  "  were  worn  on  their  apparel,  at  least  "  musi- 
cians by  trade,  and  dancing-schools,"  were  not  fostered. 
It  was  still  remembered  that  the  people  were  led  into  the 
wilderness  by  Aaron,  not  less  than  by  Moses ;  and,  in  spite 
of  the  increasing  spirit  of  inquiry  and  toleration,  it  was 


452  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV. 

resolved  to  retain  the  Congregational  churches  "  in  their 

purest  and  most  athletick  constitution." 

During  this  vigorous  growth  and  uninterrupted  af- 

1665.       fluence,  many  of  the  patriarchs  of  the  colony,  —  Ende- 
cott,  the  one  of  the  original  grantees  who  had  struck 

the  English  red  cross  from  the  colors  of  Massachusetts,  stub- 
born in  the  assertion  of  its  charter  rights ;  the  hospi- 

166T.       table,  sincere,  but  persecuting  Wilson  ;  the  uncompro- 

1670.  mising  Davenport,  who  founded  New  Haven  on  a  rock, 
and,  having  at  first  preached  beneath  the  shade  of  a 
forest  tree,  had  lived  to  behold  the  country  full  of  con- 

1671.  venient  churches  ;  the  tolerant  Willoughby,  who  had 

1672.  pleaded  for  the  Baptists ;  the  incorruptible  Belling- 
ham,  precise  in  his  manners,  and  rigid  in  his  princi- 
ples of  independence,  —  these,  and  others,  the  fathers  of  the 
people,  lay  down  in  peace,  closing  a  career  of  virtue  in  the 
calmness  of  hope,  and  lamenting  nothing  so  much  as  that 
their  career  was  finished  too  soon  for  them  to  witness  the 
fulness  of  New  England's  glory. 

This  increase  of  the  English  portended  danger;  for  it 
alarmed  the  race  of  red  men,  who  could  not  change  their 
habits,  and  who  saw  themselves  deprived  of  their  usual 
means  of  subsistence.  It  is  difficult  to  form  exact  opin- 
ions on  the  population  of  the  several  colonies  in  this 
earlier  period  of  their  history ;  the  colonial  accounts  are 
incomplete  ;  and  those  which  were  furnished  by  emissa- 
ries from  England  are  extravagantly  false.  No  great  error 
will  be  committed,  if  we  suppose  the  white  popula- 
1675.  tion  of  New  England,  in  1675,  to  have  been  fifty- 
five  thousand  souls.  Of  these,  Plymouth  may  have 
contained  not  many  less  than  seven  thousand;  Connecti- 
cut, nearly  fourteen  thousand ;  Massachusetts  proper,  more 
than  twenty-two  thousand ;  and  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
and  Rhode  Island,  each  perhaps  four  thousand.  The  settle- 
ments were  chiefly  agricultural  communities,  planted  near 
the  seaside,  from  New  Haven  to  Pemaquid.  The  beaver 
trade,  even  more  than  traffic  in  lumber  and  fish,  had  pro- 
duced the  villages  beyond  the  Piscataqua;  yet  in  Maine, 
as  in  New  Hampshire,  there  was  "  a  great  trade  in  deal 


1675.  THE  ENGLISH  AND  THE  NATIVES.  453 

boards."  Most  of  the  towns  were  insulated  settlements 
near  the  ocean,  on  rivers,  which  were  employed  to  drive 
"  the  saw-mills,"  then  described  as  a  "  late  invention ;  "  and 
cultivation  had  not  extended  far  into  the  interior.  Haver- 
hill,  on  the  Merrimack,  was  a  frontier  town ;  from  Connecti- 
cut, emigrants  had  ascended  as  far  as  the  rich  meadows  of 
Deerfield  and  Northfield ;  but,  to  the  west,  Berkshire  was  a 
wilderness;  Westfield  was  the  remotest  plantation.  Be- 
tween the  towns  on  Connecticut  River  and  the  cluster 
of  towns  near  Massachusetts  Bay,  Lancaster  and  Brook- 
field  were  the  solitary  abodes  of  Christians  in  the  desert. 
•The  government  of  Massachusetts  extended  to  the  Kenne- 
bec,  and  included  more  than  half  the  population  of  New 
England;  the  confederacy  of  the  colonies  had  also  been 
renewed,  in  anticipation  of  dangers. 

The  number  of  the  Indians  of  that  day  hardly  amounted 
to  thirty  thousand  in  all  New  England  west  of  the  St. 
Croix.  Of  these,  perhaps  about  five  thousand  dwelt  in  the 
territory  of  Maine  ;  New  Hampshire  may  have  hardly  con- 
tained three  thousand ;  and  Massachusetts,  with  Plymouth, 
never  from  the  first  peopled  by  many  Indians,  seems  to 
have  had  less  than  eight  thousand.  In  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island,  never  depopulated  by  wasting  sickness,  the 
Mohegans,  the  Narragansetts,  the  Pokanokets,  and  kindred 
tribes,  had  multiplied  their  villages  along  the  seashore,  the 
inlets,  and  the  larger  ponds,  which  increased  their  scanty 
supplies  by  furnishing  abundance  of  fish.  Yet,  of  these,  the 
exaggerated  estimates  melt  away,  when  subjected  to  criti- 
cism. To  Connecticut,  rumor,  in  the  days  of  the  elder 
Winthrop,  gave  three  or  four  thousand  warrior  Indians; 
and  there  may  have  been  half  of  the  larger  number:  the 
Narragansetts,  like  so  many  other  tribes,  boasted  of  their 
former  grandeur,  but  they  could  not  bring  into  action  a 
thousand  bowmen.  Thus,  therefore,  west  of  the  Piscata- 
qua,  there  were  probably  about  fifty  thousand  whites  and 
hardly  twenty-five  thousand  Indians ;  while,  east  of  the 
same  stream,  there  were  about  four  thousand  whites,  and 
perhaps  more  than  that  number  of  red  men. 

A  sincere  attempt  had  been  made  to  convert  the  natives, 


454  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV. 

and  win  them  to  the  regular  industry  of  civilized  life.  The 
ministers  of  the  early  emigration  were  fired  with  a  zeal  as 
pure  as  it  was  fervent  ;  they  longed  to  redeem  these 
"  wrecks  of  humanity,"  by  planting  in  their  hearts  the 
seeds  of  conscious  virtue,  and  gathering  them  into  perma- 
nent villages. 

No  pains  were  spared  to  teach  them  to  read  and  write ; 
and,  in  a  short  time,  a  larger  proportion  of  the  Massachusetts 
Indians  could  do  so  than  recently  of  the  inhabitants  of  Rus- 
sia. Some  of  them  spoke  and  wrote  English  tolerably  well. 
Foremost  among  these  early  missionaries,  the  morning  st  ar  of 
missionary  enterprise,  was  John  Eliot,  whose  benevolence 
almost  amounted  to  the  inspiration  of  genius.  An  Indian 
grammar  was  a  pledge  of  his  earnestness ;  the  pledge  was 
redeemed  by  his  preparing  and  publishing  a  translation  of 
the  whole  Bible  into  the  Massachusetts  dialect.  His  actions, 
his  thoughts,  his  desires,  all  wore  the  hues  of  disinterested 
love. 

Eliot  mixed  with  the  Indians.  He  spoke  to  them  of  God 
and  of  the  soul,  and  explained  the  virtues  of  self-denial. 
He  became  their  lawgiver.  He  taught  the  women  to  spin, 
the  men  to  dig  the  ground  ;  he  established  for  them  simple 
forms  of  government ;  and,  in  spite  of  menaces  from  their 
priests  and  chieftains,  he  instructed  them  in  his  own  relig- 
ious faith,  and  not  without  success.  Groups  of  Indians 
used  to  gather  round  him  as  round  a  father,  and,  now  that 
their  minds  were  awakened  to  reflection,  often  perplexed 
him  with  their  questions.  The  philosopher  and  the  savage 
alike  find  it  difficult  to  solve  the  problem  of  existence.  The 
world  is  divided  between  materialists  and  spiritualists. 
"What  is  a  spirit?"  said  the  Indians  of  Massachusetts  to 
their  apostle.  "  Can  the  soul  be  enclosed  in  iron  so  that  it 
cannot  escape  ?  "  "  When  Christ  arose,  whence  came  his 
soul  ?  "  Every  clan  had  some  vague  conceptions  of  immor- 
tality. "  Shall  I  know  you  in  heaven  ?  "  said  an  inquiring 
red  man.  "  Our  little  children  have  not  sinned ;  when  they 
die,  whither  do  they  go  ?  "  "  When  such  die  as  never  heard 
of  Christ,  where  do  they  go  ?  "  "  Do  they  in  heaven  dwell 
in  houses,  and  what  do  they  do  ?  "  "  Do  they  know  things 


1675.  THE   ENGLISH  AND   THE  NATIVES.  455 

done  here  on  earth  ?  "  The  origin  of  moral  evil  has  engaged 
the  minds  of  the  most  subtle.  "  Why,"  demanded  the 
natives  on  the  banks  of  the  Charles,  "  why  did  not  God  give 
all  men  good  hearts  ?  "  "  Since  God  is  all-powerful,  why 
did  not  God  kill  the  devil,  that  made  men  so  bad  ? "  Of 
themselves  they  fell  into  the  mazes  of  fixed  decrees  and  free 
will.  "  Doth  God  know  who  shall  repent  and  believe,  and 
who  not  ? "  The  statesman  might  have  hesitated  in  his 
answers  to  some  problems.  The  ballot-box  was  to  them 
a  mystery.  "  When  you  choose  magistrates,  how  do  you 
know  who  are  good  men,  whom  you  dare  trust  ? "  And 
again  :  "  If  a  man  be  wise,  and  his  sachem  weak,  must  he 
yet  obey  him  ?  "  Cases  of  casuistry  occurred  ;  I  will  cite  but 
two,  one  of  which,  at  least,  cannot  easily  be  decided.  Eliot 
preached  against  polygamy.  "  Suppose  a  man,  before  he 
knew  God,"  inquired  a  convert,  "hath  had  two  wives:  the 
first  childless,  the  second  bearing  him  many  sweet  children, 
whom  he  exceedingly  loves ;  which  of  these  two  wives  is  he  to 
put  away  ?  "  And  the  question  which  Kotzebue  proposed  in 
a  fiction,  that  has  found  its  way  across  the  ocean,  was  in  real 
life  put  to  the  pure-minded  Eliot,  among  the  wigwams  of 
Nonantum.  "  Suppose  a  squaw  desert  and  flee  from  her 
husband,  and  live  with  another  distant  Indian,  till,  hearing 
the  word,  she  repents,  and  desires  to  come  again  to  her 
husband,  who  remains  still  unmarried :  shall  the  husband, 
upon  her  repentance,  receive  her  again?"  The  poet  of 
civilization  tells  us  that  happiness  is  the  end  of  our  being. 
"  How  shall  I  find  happiness  ?  "  demanded  the  savage.  And 
Eliot  was  never  tired  by  this  importunity  or  by  the  hered- 
itary idleness  of  the  race ;  and  his  simplicity  of  life  and 
manners  won  for  him  all  hearts,  whether  in  the  villages  of 
the  emigrants  or  "the  smoaky  cells  "  of  the  natives. 

In  the  islands  round  Massachusetts,  and  within  the  limits 
of  the  Plymouth  patent, "  that  young  New  England  scholar," 
the  gentle  Mayhew,  forgetting  the  pride  of  learning,  en- 
deavored to  convert  the  natives.  At  a  later  day,  he  took 
passage  for  England  to  awaken  interest  in  his  mission  ;  and 
the  ship  in  which  he  sailed  was  never  more  heard  of.  But, 
such  had  been  the  force  of  his  example,  that  his  father, 


456  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV. 

though  bowed  down  by  the  weight  of  seventy  years,  as- 
sumed the  office  of  the  son  whom  he  had  lost,  and,  till 
beyond  the  age  of  fourscore  years  and  twelve,  continued  to 
instruct  the  natives  of  the  isles,  and  with  the  happiest  results. 
The  Indians  within  his  influence,  though  twenty  times  more 
numerous  than  the  whites  in  their  immediate  neighborhood, 
preserved  an  immutable  friendship  with  Massachusetts. 

Thus  churches  of  "  praying  Indians  "  were  gathered  ;  at 
Cambridge,  an  Indian  became  a  bachelor  of  arts.  Yet 
Christianity  hardly  spread  beyond  the  Indians  on  Cape  Cod, 
Martha's  Vineyard,  and  Nantucket,  and  the  seven  feeble  vil- 
lages round  Boston.  The  Narragansetts,  hemmed  in  be- 
tween Connecticut  and  Plymouth,  restless  and  jealous, 
retained  their  old  belief;  and  Philip  of  Pokanoket,  at  the 
head  of  seven  hundred  warriors,  professed  with  pride  the 
faith  of  his  fathers. 

But  he,  and  the  tribes  that  owned  his  influence,  were 
now  shut  in  by  the  gathering  plantations  of  the  English, 
and  were  the  first  to  forebode  the  danger  of  extermina- 
tion. True,  the  inhabitants  of  New  England  had  never, 
except  in  the  territory  of  the  Pequods,  taken  possession 
of  a  foot  of  land  without  first  obtaining  a  title  from  the 
Indians.  But  the  unlettered  savage,  who  repented  the 
alienation  of  vast  tracts  by  affixing  a  shapeless  mark  to  a 
bond,  might  deem  the  English  tenure  defeasible.  Again, 
by  repeated  treaties,  the  red  man  had  acknowledged  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  English,  who  claimed  a  guardianship 
over  him,  and  really  endeavored  in  their  courts,  with  scru- 
pulous justice,  and  even  with  favor,  to  protect  him  from 
fraud,  and  to  avenge  his  wrongs.  But  the  wild  inhabitants 
of  the  woods  or  the  seashore  could  not  understand  the  duty 
of  allegiance  to  an  unknown  sovereign,  or  acknowledge 
the  binding  force  of  a  political  compact ;  crowded  by  hated 
neighbors,  losing  fields  and  hunting-grounds,  and  frequently 
summoned  to  Boston  or  Plymouth,  to  reply  to  an  accusation 
or  to  explain  their  purposes,  they  sighed  for  the  forest  free- 
dom, which  was  to  them  more  dear  than  constitutional  lib- 
erties to  the  civilized,  and  which  had  been  handed  down  to 
them  from  immemorial  ages. 


CHAP.  XV.      THE  ENGLISH  AND   THE  NATIVES.  457 

The  clans  within  the  limits  of  the  denser  settlements 
of  the  English,  especially  the  Indian  villages  round  Boston, 
were  broken-spirited  from  the  overwhelming  force  of  the 
English.  In  their  rude  blending  of  new  instructions  with 
their  ancient  superstitions,  in  their  feeble  imitations  of  the 
manners  of  civilization,  in  their  appeals  to  the  charities  of 
Europeans,  they  had  quenched  the  fierce  spirit  of  savage 
independence.  They  loved  the  crumbs  from  the  white 
man's  table. 

But  the  Pokanokets  had  always  rejected  the  Christian 
faith  and  Christian  manners  ;  and  Massassoit  had  desired 
to  insert  in  a  treaty,  what  the  Puritans  never  permitted, 
that  the  English  should  never  attempt  to  convert  the  war- 
riors of  his  tribe  from  the  religion  of  their  race.  The  aged 
Massassoit  —  he  who  had  welcomed  the  pilgrims  to  the  soil 
of  New  England,  and  had  opened  his  cabin  to  shelter  the 
founder  of  Rhode  Island  —  now  slept  with  his  fathers ; 
and  Philip,  his  son,  had  succeeded  him  as  chief  over  allied 
tribes.  Repeated  sales  of  land  had  narrowed  their  do- 
mains ;  and  the  English  had  artfully  crowded  them  into 
the  tongues  of  land,  as  "  most  suitable  and  convenient 
for  them,"  and  as  more  easily  watched.  The  two  chief 
seats  of  the  Pokanokets  were  the  peninsulas  which  we  now 
call  Bristol  and  Tiverton.  As  the  English  villages  drew 
nearer  and  nearer  to  them,  their  hunting-grounds  were  put 
under  culture,  their  natural  parks  were  turned  into  pas- 
tures, their  best  fields  for  planting  corn  were  gradually 
alienated,  their  fisheries  were  impaired  by  more  skilful 
methods,  till  they  found  themselves  deprived  of  their  broad 
acres,  and  by  their  own  legal  contracts  driven,  as  it  were, 
into  the  sea. 

Collisions  and  mutual  distrust  were  the  necessary  conse- 
quence. I  can  find  no  evidence  of  a  deliberate  conspiracy 
on  the  part  of  all  the  tribes.  The  commencement  of  war 
was  accidental ;  many  of  the  Indians  were  in  a  maze,  not 
knowing  what  to  do,  and  ready  to  stand  for  the  English ; 
sure  proof  of  no  ripened  conspiracy.  But  to  many  tribes 
there  were  common  griefs  ;  they  had  the  same  recollections 
and  the  same  fears ;  and,  when  they  met,  could  not  but 


458  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV. 

complain  of  their  common  forfeiture  of  the  domains  of  their 
fathers.  They  spurned  the  English  claim  of  jurisdiction, 
and  were  indignant  that  Indian  chiefs  or  warriors  should 
be  arraigned  before  a  jury.  And  when  the  expressions  of 
common  passion  were  repeated  by  an  Indian  talebearer,  fear 
magnified  the  plans  of  the  tribes  into  an  organized  scheme 
of  resistance. 

The  haughty  chieftain,  who  had  once  before  been  com- 
pelled  to  surrender  his   "  English  arms,"  and  pay 
1674.       an  onerous  tribute,  was  summoned  to  submit  to  an 
examination,  and  could  not  escape  suspicion.     The 
wrath   of   his   tribe    was    roused,   and    the    informer   was 
murdered.     The  murderers  in  their  turn  were  iden- 
tfune.     tified,  seized,  tried   by  a  jury,  of  which   one  half 
were  Indians,  and,  on  conviction,  were  hanged.    The 
young  men  of  the  tribe  panted  for  revenge ;  without 
June  24.  delay,  eight  or  nine  of  the  English  were  slain  in  or 
about  Swansey ;  and  the  alarm  of  war  spread  through 
the  colonies. 

Thus  was  Philip  hurried  into  "  his  rebellion  ; "  and  he  is 
reported  to  have  wept  as  he  heard  that  a  white  man's  blood 
had  been  shed.  He  had  kept  his  men  about  him  in  arms, 
and  had  welcomed  every  stranger;  and  yet,  against  his 
judgment  and  his  will,  he  was  involved  in  war.  For  what 
prospect  had  he  of  success  ?  The  English  were  united  ;  the 
Indians  had  no  alliance  :  the  English  made  a  common  cause ; 
half  the  Indians  were  allies  of  the  English,  or  were  quiet 
spectators  of  the  fight :  the  English  had  guns  enough ;  but 
few  of  the  Indians  were  well  armed,  and  they  could  get  no 
new  supplies :  the  English  had  towns  for  their  shelter  and 
safe  retreat;  the  miserable  wigwams  of  the  natives  were 
defenceless:  the  English  had  sure  supplies  of  food;  the 
Indians  might  easily  lose  their  precarious  stores.  Frenzy 
prompted  their  rising.  They  rose  without  hope,  and  they 
fought  without  mercy.  For  them  as  a  nation,  there  was 
no  to-morrow. 

The  minds  of  the  English  were  appalled  by  the  horrors 
of  the  impending  conflict,  and  superstition  indulged  in  its 
wild  inventions.  At  the  time  of  the  eclipse  of  the  moon, 


1675.  THE  ENGLISH  AND   THE   NATIVES.  459 

you  might  have  seen  the  figure  of  an  Indian  scalp  im- 
printed on  the  centre  of  its  disk.  The  perfect  form  of  an 
Indian  bow  appeared  in  the  sky.  The  sighing  of  the 
wind  was  like  the  whistling  of  bullets.  Some  heard  in- 
visible troops  of  horses  gallop  through  the  air,  while  others 
found  the  prophecy  of  calamities  in  the  howling  of  the 
wolves. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  danger,  the  colonists  exerted 
their  wonted  energy.  Volunteers  from  Massachusetts 
joined  the  troops  from  Plymouth ;  and,  within  a  week 
from  the  commencement  of  hostilities,  the  insulated 
Pokanokets  were  driven  from  Mount  Hope,  and  in  j^5^. 
less  than  a  month  Philip  was  a  fugitive  among  the 
Nipmucks,  the  interior  tribes  of  Massachusetts.  The  little 
army  of  the  colonists  then  entered  the  territory  of  the 
Narragansetts,  and  from  the  reluctant  tribe  extorted  a 
treaty  of  neutrality,  with  a  promise  to  deliver  up  every 
hostile  Indian.  Victory  seemed  promptly  assured.  But  it 
was  only  the  commencement  of  horrors.  Canonchet,  the 
chief  sachem  of  the  Narragansetts,  was  the  son  of  Mianto- 
nomoh  ;  and  could  he  forget  his  father's  wrongs  ?  Desola- 
tion extended  along  the  whole  frontier.  Banished  from 
his  patrimony,  where  the  pilgrims  found  a  friend,  and  from 
his  cabin,  which  had  sheltered  the  exiles,  Philip,  with  his 
warriors,  spread  through  the  country,  awakening  their 
brethren  to  a  warfare  of  extermination. 

The  war,  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  was  one  of  ambus- 
cades and  surprises.  They  never  once  met  the  English  in 
open  field ;  but  always,  even  if  eightfold  in  numbers,  fled 
timorously  before  infantry.  They  were  secret  as  beasts 
of  prey,  skilful  marksmen,  and  in  part  provided  with  fire- 
arms, fleet  of  foot,  conversant  with  all  the  paths  of  the 
forest,  patient  of  fatigue,  and  mad  with  a  passion  for  rapine, 
vengeance,  and  destruction,  retreating  into  swamps  for  their 
fastnesses,  or  hiding  in  the  greenwood  thickets,  where  the 
leaves  muffled  the  eyes  of  the  pursuer.  By  the  rapidity  of 
their  descent,  they  seemed  omnipresent  among  the  scat- 
tered villages,  which  they  ravaged  like  a  passing  storm; 
and  for  a  full  year  they  kept  all  New  England  in  a  state  of 


460  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV. 

terror  and  excitement.  The  exploring  party  was  waylaid 
and  cut  off,  and  the  mangled  carcasses  and  disjointed  limbs 
of  the  dead  were  hung  upon  the  trees.  The  laborer  in  the 
field,  the  reapers  as  they  sallied  forth  to  the  harvest,  men 
as  they  went  to  mill,  the  shepherd's  boy  among  the  sheep, 
were  shot  down  by  skulking  foes,  whose  approach  was 
invisible.  Who  can  tell  the  heavy  hours  of  woman  ?  The 
mother,  if  left  alone  in  the  house,  feared  the  tomahawk  for 
herself  and  children;  on  the  sudden  attack,  the  husband 
would  fly  with  one  child,  the  wife  with  another,  and,  per- 
haps, one  only  escape ;  the  village  cavalcade,  making  its 
way  to  meeting  on  Sunday,  in  files  on  horseback,  the  far- 
mer holding  the  bridle  in  one  hand  and  a  child  in  the  other, 
his  wife  seated  on  a  pillion  behind  him,  it  may  be  with  a 
child  in  her  lap,  as  was  the  fashion  in  those  days,  could  not 
proceed  safely ;  but,  at  the  moment  when  least  expected, 
bullets  would  whiz  amongst  them,  sent  from  an  unseen 
enemy  by  the  wayside.  The  forest,  that  protected  the 
ambush  of  the  Indians,  secured  their  retreat. 

What  need  of  repeating  the  same  tale  of  horrors  ?   Brook- 
field,  a  settlement  of  less  than  twenty  families,  the  only  one 

in  the  wilderness  between  Lancaster  and  Hadley,  was 
Aug5*2.  besieged  and  set  on  fire,  and  most  gallantly  rescued 

by  Simon  Willard,  now  seventy  years  old,  and  res- 
Sept,  i.  cued  only  to  be  abandoned ;  Deerfield  was  burnt. 

The    plains  of  Northfield  were  wet  with  the  blood 

of  Beers,  and  twenty  of  his  valiant  associates.  As 
Xathrop's  company  of  young  men,  all  "  culled "  out  of  the 

towns  of  Essex  county,  were  conveying  the  harvests 
Sept.  is.  of  Deerfield  to  the  lower  towns,  they  were  suddenly 

surrounded  by  a  horde  of  Indians ;  and,  as  each  party 
fought  from  behind  trees,  the  victory  was  with  the  far  more 
numerous  savages.  Hardly  a  white  man  escaped ;  the  little 
stream  that  winds  through  the  tranquil  scene,  by  its  name 
of  blood,  commemorates  the  massacre  of  that  day.  For  ten 
weeks  of  the  autumn,  the  commissioners  of  the  united  colo- 
nies, which  were  now  but  three  in  number,  were  almost 
constantly  in  session.  With  one  voice  they  voted  that  the 


1675.  THE  ENGLISH  AND  THE  NATIVES.  461 

war  was  a  just  and  necessary  war  of  defence,  to  be  jointly 
prosecuted  by  all  the  united  colonies  at  their  common 
charge.  They  directed  that  a  thousand  soldiers  should  be 
raised,  of  whom  one  half  should  be  troopers  with  long 
arms.  Of  the  whole  number,  the  quota  of  Massachusetts 
was  five  hundred  and  twenty-seven ;  of  Plymouth,  one 
hundred  and  fifty-eight;  of  Connecticut,  three  hun- 
dred and  fifteen.  But  the  war  still  raged.  In  Octo-  ^ 
ber,  Springfield  was  burnt,  and  Hadley  once  more 
assaulted.  The  remoter  villages  were  deserted  ;  the  pleas- 
ant residences,  that  had  been  won  by  hard  toil  in  the  desert, 
the  stations  of  civilization  in  the  wilderness,  were  laid 
waste. 

But  the  English  were  not  the  only  sufferers.  In  winter, 
it  was  the  custom  of  the  natives  to  dwell  together  in  their 
wigwams ;  in  spring,  they  would  be  dispersed  through  the 
woods.  In  winter,  the  warriors  who  had  spread  misery 
through  the  west,  were  sheltered  among  the  Narragansetts : 
in  spring,  they  would  renew  their  devastations.  In  winter, 
the  absence  of  foliage  made  the  forests  less  dangerous ;  in 
spring,  every  bush  would  be  a  hiding-place.  It  was  re- 
solved to  regard  the  Narragansetts  as  enemies ;  and, 
just  before  the  winter  solstice,  a  second  levy  of  a  Dec.  is. 
thousand  men,  raised  by  order  of  the  united  colonies, 
and  commanded  by  the  brave  Josiah  Winslow,  a  native  of 
New  England,  invaded  their  territory.  After  a  night  spent 
in  the  open  air,  they  waded  through  the  snow  from 
daybreak  till  an  hour  after  noon ;  and  at  last  reached  Dec.  19. 
the  cluster  of  the  wigwams  of  their  savage  enemies 
within  the  limits  of  the  present  town  of  South  Kingston. 
The  village,  built  on  about  six  acres  of  land  which  rose  out 
of  a  swamp,  was  protected  in  its  entire  circumference  by 
thickly  set  palisades,  to  which  the  approach  was  defended  by 
a  block-house.  Without  waiting  to  take  food  or  rest,  the 
New  Englanders  began  the  attack.  Davenport,  Gardner, 
Johnson,  Gallop,  Siely,  Marshall,  led  their  companies  through 
the  narrow  entrance  in  the  face  of  death,  and  left  their  lives 
as  a  testimony  to  their  patriotism  and  courage.  But  the 


462  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV. 

palisades,  strong  as  they  were,  could  not  check  the  deter- 
mined valor  of  the  assailing  party.  Within  the  enclosure, 
the  battle  raged  hand  to  hand,  till  seventy  of  the  New  Eng- 
landers  were  killed  and  twice  that  number  wounded ;  nor 
was  it  decided  till  the  group  of  Indian  cabins  was  set  on 
fire.  Thus  were  swept  away  the  winter's  stores  of  the 
tribe,  their  curiously  wrought  baskets,  full  of  corn,  their 
famous  strings  of  wampum,  their  wigwams  nicely  lined 
with  mats,  —  all  the  little  comforts  of  savage  life.  Old 
men,  women,  and  babes  perished  in  the  flames.  How  many 
of  their  warriors  fell  was  never  known.  The  English  troops, 
after  the  engagement,  bearing  with  them  their  wounded, 
retraced  their  steps,  by  night,  through  a  snow-storm,  to 
Wickford. 

The  spirit  of  Canonchet  did  not  droop  under  the  disasters 
of  his  tribe.  "  We  will  fight  to  the  last  man,"  said  the  gal- 
lant chieftain,  "  rather  than  become  servants  to  the 
Apru.  English."  Taken  prisoner  near  the  Blackstone,  a 
young  man  began  to  question  him.  "  Child,"  replied 
he,  "  you  do  not  understand  war ;  I  will  answer  your  chief." 
His  life  was  offered  him,  if  he  would  procure  a  treaty  of 
peace ;  he  refused  the  offer  with  disdain.  "  I  know,"  added 
he,  "  the  Indians  will  not  yield."  Condemned  to  death,  he 
only  answered :  "  I  like  it  well ;  I  shall  die  before  I  speak 
any  thing  unworthy  of  myself." 

Meantime,  the  Indian  warriors  were  not  idle.  "  We  will 
fight,"  said  they,  "  these  twenty  years ;  you  have  houses, 
barns,  and  corn  ;  we  have  now  nothing  .to  lose  ; "  and  towns 
in  Massachusetts  one  after  another,  Lancaster,  Medfield, 
Weymouth,  Groton,  Marlborough,  were  laid  in  ashes. 

Nowhere  was  there  more  distress  than  at  Lancaster. 
Forty-two  persons  sought  shelter  under  the  roof  of  Mary 
Rowlandson;  and,  after  a  hot  assault,  the  Indians  suc- 
ceeded in  setting  the  house  on  fire.  Will  the  mothers  of 
the  United  States,  happy  in  the  midst  of  unexampled  pros- 
perity, know  the  sorrows  of  woman  in  a  former  generation  ? 
"  Quickly,"  writes  Mary  Rowlandson,  "  it  was  the  dolefulest 
day  that  ever  mine  eyes  saw.  Now  the  dreadful  hour  is 


1675.  THE  ENGLISH  AND  THE  NATIVES.  463 

come.  Some  in  our  house  were  fighting  for  their  lives; 
others  wallowing  in  blood  ;  the  house  on  fire  over  our  heads, 
and  the  bloody  heathen  ready  to  knock  us  on  the  head,  if 
we  stirred  out.  I  took  ray  children  to  go  forth ;  but  the 
Indians  shot  so  thick  that  the  bullets  rattled  against  the 
house,  as  if  one  had  thrown  a  handful  of  stones.  We  had 
six  stout  dogs,  but  none  of  them  would  stir.  .  .  .  The  bul- 
lets flying  thick,  one  went  through  my  side,  and  through 
my  poor  child  in  my  arms."  The  brutalities  of  an  Indian 
massacre  followed  ;  "  there  remained  nothing  to  me,"  she 
continues,  now  in  captivity,  "but  one  poor  wounded  babe. 
Down  I  must  sit  in  the  snow,  with  my  sick  child,  the  pic- 
ture of  death,  in  my  lap.  Not  the  least  crumb  of  refreshing 
came  within  either  of  our  mouths  from  Wednesday  night 
to  Saturday  night,  except  only  a  little  cold  water.  .  .  .  One 
Indian,  and  then  a  second,  and  then  a  third,  would  come 
and  tell  me,  Your  master  will  quickly  knock  your  child  on 
the  head.  This  was  the  comfort  I  had  from  them :  miser- 
able comforters  were  they  all." 

Nor  were  such  scenes  of  ruin  confined  to  Massachusetts. 
At  the  south,  the  Narragansett  country  was  deserted  by 
the  English ;  Warwick  was  burnt ;  Providence  was  at- 
tacked and  set  on  fire.  There  was  no  security  but  to  seek 
out  the  hiding-places  of  the  natives,  and  destroy  them  by 
surprise.  On  the  banks  of  the  Connecticut,  just  above  the 
falls  that  take  their  name  from  the  gallant  Turner,  was  an 
encampment  of  large  bodies  of  hostile  Indians ;  a  band  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  volunteers,  from  among  the  yeomanry 
of  Springfield,  Hadley,  Hatfield,  and  Northampton,  led  by 
Turner  and  Holyoke,  making  a  silent  march  in  the 
dead  of  night,  came  at  daybreak  upon  the  wigwams.  M^g. 
The  Indians  are  taken  by  surprise ;  some  are  shot 
down  in  their  cabins;  others  rush  to  the  river,  and  are 
drowned ;  others  push  from  shore  in  their  birchen  canoes, 
and  are  hurried  down  the  cataract. 

As  the  season  advanced,  the  Indians  abandoned  every 
hope.  Their  forces  were  wasted ;  they  had  no  fields  that 
they  could  plant.  Such  continued  warfare  without  a  respite 


464  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV. 

was  against  their  usages.  They  began,  as  the  unsuccessful 
and  unhappy  so  often  do,  to  quarrel  among  themselves; 
recriminations  ensued ;  those  of  Connecticut  charged  their 
sufferings  upon  Philip ;  and  his  allies  became  suppliants  for 
peace.  Some  surrendered  to  escape  starvation.  In  the 
progress  of  the  year,  between  two  and  three  thousand 
Indians  were  killed  or  submitted.  Church,  the  most  famous 
partisan  warrior,  went  out  to  hunt  down  parties  of  fugitives. 
Some  of  the  tribes  wandered  away  to  the  north,  and  were 
blended  with  tribes  of  Canada.  Philip  himself  was  chased 
from  one  hiding-place  to  another.  He  had  vainly  sought  to 
engage  the  Mohawks  in  the  contest ;  now  that  hope  was  at 
an  end,  he  still  refused  to  hear  of  peace,  and  struck  dead 
the  warrior  who  proposed  it.  At  length,  after  a  year's 
absence,  he  resolved,  as  it  were,  to  meet  his  destiny ;  and 
returned  to  the  beautiful  land  which  held  the  graves 
Augf's.  °^  kis  forefathers,  and  had  been  his  home.  Once  he 
escaped  narrowly,  leaving  his  wife  and  only  son  as 
prisoners.  "  My  heart  breaks,"  cried  the  tattooed  chieftain, 
in  the  agony  of  his  grief ;  "  now  I  am  ready  to  die."  His 
own  followers  began  to  plot  against  him,  to  make  better 
terms  for  themselves,  and  in  a  few  days  he  was  shot  by 
a  faithless  Indian.  His  captive  child  was  sold  as  a  slave 
in  Bermuda.  Of  the  Narragansetts,  once  the  chief  tribe 
of  New  England,  hardly  one  hundred  men  survived. 

During  the  war,  the  Mohegans  remained  faithful  to  the 
English ;  and  not  a  drop  of  blood  was  shed  on  the  happy 
soil  of  Connecticut.  So  much  the  greater  was  the  loss  in 
the  adjacent  colonies.  Twelve  or  thirteen  towns  were  de- 
stroyed ;  the  disbursements  and  losses  equalled  in  value 
half  a  million  of  dollars,  an  enormous  sum  for  the  few  of 
that  day.  More  than  six  hundred  men,  chiefly  young  men, 
the  flower  of  the  country,  perished  in  the  field.  As  many 
as  six  hundred  houses  were  burnt.  Of  the  able-bodied 
men  in  the  colony,  one  in  twenty  had  fallen ;  and  one  family 
in  twenty  had  been  burnt  out. 

Let  us  not  forget  a  good  deed  of  the  generous  Irish ;  they 
sent  over  a  contribution,  small,  it  is  true,  to  relieve  in  part 


1677.  THE  ENGLISH  AND  THE  NATIVES.  465 

the  distresses  of  Plymouth  colony.  Connecticut,  which  had 
contributed  soldiers  to  the  war,  furnished  the  houseless  with 
more  than  a  thousand  bushels  of  corn.  "  God  will  remem- 
ber and  reward  that  pleasant  fruit."  Boston  did  the  like, 
for  "  the  grace  of  Christ  always  made  Boston  exemplary  " 
in  works  of  that  nature. 

The  eastern  hostilities  with  the  Indians  had  a  different 
origin,  and  were  of  longer  continuance.  The  news  of  the 
rising  of  the  Pokanokets  was,  indeed,  the  signal  for  the 
commencement  of  devastations ;  and,  within  a  few  weeks, 
a  border  warfare  extended  over  nearly  three  hundred  miles. 
Sailors  had  committed  outrages,  and  the  Indians  avenged 
the  crimes  of  a  corrupt  ship's  crew  on  the  villages.  There 
was  no  general  rising  of  the  Abenakis,  or  eastern  tribes,  no 
gatherings  of  large  bodies  of  men.  Of  the  English  settle- 
ments, nearly  one  half  were  destroyed  in  detail;  the  in- 
habitants were  either  driven  away,  killed,  or  carried  into 
captivity;  for  covetousness  sometimes  provoked  to  mercy, 
by  exciting  the  hope  of  a  ransom. 

The  escape  of  ANNE  BRACKETT,  grand-daughter  of  George 
Cleeves,  the  first  settler  of  Portland,  was  the  marvel 
of  that  day.  Her  family  had  been  taken  captive  at  Au|7n. 
the  sack  of  Falmouth.  When  her  captors  hastened 
forward  to  further  ravages  on  the  Kennebec,  she  was  able 
to  loiter  behind  ;  with  needle  and  thread  from  a  deserted 
house,  she  repaired  the  wreck  of  a  birchen  bark  ;  then,  with 
her  husband,  a  negro  servant,  and  her  infant  child,  she 
trusted  herself  to  the  sea  in  the  patched  canoe,  which  had 
neither  sail  nor  mast,  and  was  like  a  feather  on  the  waves 
She  crossed  Casco  Bay,  and,  arriving  at  Black  Point,  where 
she  feared  to  encounter  Indians,  and  at  best  could  only  have 
hoped  to  find  a  solitude,  how  great  was  her  joy,  as  she  dis- 
covered a  vessel  from  Piscataqua,  that  had  just  sought 
anchorage  in  the  harbor! 

The  surrender  of  Acadia  to  the  French  had  rendered  the 
struggle  more  arduous ;  for  the  eastern  Indians  obtained 
supplies  of  arms  from  the  French  on  the  Penobscot.  To 
defeat  the  savage  enemy  effectually,  the  Mohawks 
were  invited  to  engage  in  the  war ;  a  few  of  them  len. 
VOL.  i  80 


466  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV. 

took  up  the  hatchet :  but  distance  rendered  co-opera- 
tion impossible.  After  several  fruitless  attempts  at 
Apn8i2.  treaties,  peace  was  finally  established  by  Edmund 
Andros  as  the  Duke  of  York's  governor  of  his  prov- 
ince beyond  the  Kennebec.  The  terms  seemed  to  acknowl- 
edge the  superiority  of  the  Indians :  on  their  part,  the 
restoration  of  prisoners  and  the  security  of  English  towns 
were  stipulated;  in  return,  the  English  were  to  pay  an- 
nually, as  a  quit-rent,  a  peck  of  corn  for  every  English 
family. 


1676.      MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER  OVERTHROWN.       467 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    OVERTHROW    OP    THE    CHARTER   OF   MASSACHUSETTS. 

To  protect  the  Catholic  religion  and  establish  the  absolute 
power  of  the  crown  were  the  objects  pursued  by 
Charles  II.,  from  the  time  of  his  accession  to  the  1676. 
throne.  The  corresponding  movements  against  the 
liberties  of  the  colonies  were  marked  by  the  same  occasional 
hesitation  and  the  same  underlying  consistency  as  those 
against  the  rights  of  English  corporations  and  the  English 
parliament.  For  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  after  the  restora- 
tion, there  was  no  officer  of  the  customs  in  the  colony, 
except  the  governor,  annually  elected  by  the  people ;  and 
during  all  that  time  he  had  never  taken  the  oath  which  the 
navigation  act  of  1660  required,  so  that  the  acts  of  trade 
were  but  little  regarded.  During  the  disastrous  Indian  War, 
New  England  had  protected  itself  from  its  own  resources  ; 
jealous  of  independence,  it  never  applied  to  the  parent 
country  for  assistance.  "  You  are  poor,"  said  the  Earl  of 
Anglesey,  "and  yet  proud."  The  English  ministry,  con- 
tributing nothing  to  repair  colonial  losses,  made  no  secret 
of  its  intention  to  "  reassume  the  government  of  Massachu- 
setts into  its  own  hands,"  and  while  the  ground  was  still 
wet  with  the  blood  of  her  yeomanry,  the  ruins  of  her  vil- 
lages were  still  smoking,  and  the  Indian  war-cry  was  yet 
ringing  in  the  forests  of  Maine,  the  committee  of  the  privy 
council  for  plantations  "  did  agree  that  this  was  the  con- 
juncture to  do  something  effectual  for  the  better  regulation 
of  that  government,  or  else  all  hopes  of  it  might  be  here- 
after lost."  In  selecting  an  agent  to  make  inquiries  prelim- 
inary to  decisive  action,  the  choice  fell  upon  Edmund 
Randolph,  who  at  the  same  time  was  intrusted  by  Robert 


468  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVI. 

Mason  with  the  care  of  his  claims  to  New  Hamp- 
juwfio.  shire-  It  was  on  the  tenth  of  June,  1676,  that  the 
messenger  arrived  in  Boston,  menacing  at  once  the 
territorial  extension,  the  trade,  and  the  charter  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

The  emissary  on  his  arrival  waited  immediately  on  Lev- 
erett  the  governor,  and  demanded  that  the  letter  which  he 
bore  from  the  king  should  with  convenient  speed  be  read 
to  the  magistrates.  The  governor  received  him  with  cold- 
ness, avowed  ignorance  of  the  officer  whose  signature  as 
secretary  of  state  was  affixed  to  the  letter,  and  denied  the 
right  of  the  king  or  of  parliament  to  bind  the  colony  by 
laws  adverse  to  its  interests.  To  complaints  of  the  total 
neglect  of  the  act  of  navigation,  the  honest  Leverett  an- 
swered :  "  The  king  can  in  reason  do  no  less  than  let  us 
enjoy  our  liberties  and  trade,  for  we  have  made  this  large 
plantation  in  the  wilderness  at  our  own  charge,  without 
any  contribution  from  the  crown." 

Randolph,  who  was  received  only  as  the  agent  for  Mason, 
belonged  to  that  class  of  hungry  adventurers  with  whom 
America  ultimately  became  so  familiar.  Now,  on  his  return 
to  England,  after  a  residence  of  but  six  weeks  in  the  New 
World,  he  exaggerated  the  population  of  the  country  four- 
fold, and  its  wealth  in  a  still  greater  proportion,  that  he 
might  encourage  the  avarice  of  his  patrons  in  the  court  of 
Charles  II.  On  his  false  reports,  the  English  ministry  grew 
more  zealous  to  employ  him ;  and,  in  the  course  of  nine 
years,  he  made  eight  voyages  to  America. 

The  colony,  reluctantly  yielding  to  the  direct  commands 
of  Charles  II.,  resolved  to  send  William  Stoughton  and 
Peter  Bulkeley  as  its  envoys  to  England ;  but,  agreeably  to 
the  advice  of  the  elders,  circumscribed  their  powers  "  with 
the  utmost  care  and  caution."  The  oath  of  fidelity  to  the 
country  was  revived  throughout  the  jurisdiction. 

In  a  memorial  respecting  the  extent  of  their  territory, 
the  general  court  represented  their  peculiar  unhappiness,  to 
be  required,  at  one  and  the  same  time,  to  maintain  before 
courts  of  law  a  title  to  the  provinces,  and  to  dispute  with 
a  savage  foe  the  possession  of  dismal  deserts.  Remon- 


1677.      MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER  OVERTHROWN.       469 

Btrance  was  of  no  avail.  In  1677,  a  committee  of  the  im. 
privy  council,  which  examined  all  the  charters,  re- 
fused to  decide  on  the  claims  of  the  resident  settlers  to  the 
land  which  they  occupied,  but  denied  to  Massachusetts  the 
right  of  jurisdiction  over  Maine  and  New  Hampshire.  The 
decision  was  so  manifestly  in  conformity  with  English  law 
that  the  colonial  agents  attempted  no  serious  defence. 

These  provinces  being  thus  severed  from  the  government 
of  Massachusetts,  King  Charles  was  willing  to  secure  them 
as  an  appanage  for  his  reputed  son,  the  kind-hearted,  worth- 
less Duke  of  Monmouth,  the  Absalom  of  that  day,  whose 
weakness  was  involved  in  a  dishonest  opposition  to  his 
father,  and  whom  frivolous  ambition  at  last  conducted  to 
the  scaffold.  It  was  thought  that  the  united  provinces 
would  furnish  a  noble  principality,  with  an  immediate  and 
increasing  revenue.  But  before  the  monarch,  whom  extrav- 
agance had  impoverished,  could  resolve  on  a  negotiation, 
Massachusetts,  through  the  agency  of  a  Boston  merchant, 
obtained  possession  of  the  claims  of  Gorges,  by  a 
purchase  and  regular  assignment.  The  price  paid  May  6. 
was  twelve  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  about  six  thou- 
sand dollars. 

It  was  never  doubted  that  a  proprietary  could  alienate 
the  soil;  it  was  subsequently  questioned  whether  the  rights 
of  government  could  be  made  a  subject  of  traffic.  The 
assignment  was  the  cause  of  a  series  of  relations,  which,  in 
part,  continue  to  the  present  day.  In  a  pecuniary  point  of 
view,  no  transaction  could  have  been  for  Massachusetts 
more  injurious ;  for  it  constituted  her  a  frontier  state,  and 
gave  her  the  most  extensive  and  most  dangerous  frontier 
to  defend.  But  she  did  not,  at  this  time,  come  into  posses- 
sion of  the  whole  territory  which  now  forms  the  state  of 
Maine.  France,  under  the  treaty  of  Breda,  claimed  and 
occupied  the  district  from  the  St.  Croix  to  the  Penobscot, 
and  regarded  the  Kennebec  as  the  line  of  separation  between 
its  colonies  and  those  of  England ;  the  Duke  of  York  held 
the  tract  between  the  Penobscot  and  the  Kennebec,  pretend- 
ing indeed  to  own  the  whole  tract  between  the  Kennebeo 
and  the  St.  Croix ;  while  Massachusetts,  as  the  successor  to 


470  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  XVI. 

Gorges,  was  proprietary  only  of  the  district  between  the 
Kennebec  and  the  Piscataqua. 

A  novel  form  of  political  institution  ensued.  Massachu- 
setts, in  its  corporate  capacity,  was  become  the  lord  propri- 
etary of  Maine ;  the  republic  on  the  banks  of  the  Charles 
was  the  feudal  sovereign  of  this  eastern  lordship.  Maine 
had  thus  far  been  represented  in  the  Massachusetts  house 
of  representatives ;  in  obedience  to  an  ordinance  of  the 

general  court,  the  governor  and  assistants  of  Massa- 
1680.  chusetts  proceeded  to  organize  its  government  as  a 

province,  according  to  the  charter  to  Gorges.  The 
president  and  council  were  appointed  by  the  magistrates 
of  Massachusetts ;  at  the  same  time,  a  popular  legislative 
branch  was  established,  composed  of  deputies  from  the 
several  towns  in  the  district.  Danforth,  who  was  selected 
to  be  the  first  president,  was  a  man  of  superior  worth  ;  yet 
the  pride  of  the  province  was  offended  by  its  subordination  ; 
the  old  religious  differences  had  not  lost  their  influence ; 
and  royalists  and  churchmen  prayed  for  the  interposition 
of  the  king.  Massachusetts  was  compelled  to  employ  force 
to  assert  its  sovereignty,  which,  nevertheless,  was  exercised 
with  moderation  and  justice. 

The  change  of  government  in  New  Hampshire  was 

less  quietly  effected.  On  the  first  apprehension  that 
the  claim  of  Mason  would  be  revived,  the  infant  people,  in 
their  town-meetings,  expressed  their  content  with  the  gov- 
ernment of  Massachusetts.  But  the  popular  wish  availed 
little  in  the  decision  of  a  question  of  law ;  the  patent  of 

Mason  was  found  on  investigation  to  confer  no  juris- 
1677.  diction ;  the  unappropriated  lands  were  allowed  to 

belong  to  him ;  but  the  rights  of  the  settle; rs  to  the 
soil  which  they  actually  occupied  were  reserved  for  litiga- 
tion in  colonial  courts.     New  Hampshire  was  sepa- 
juiy°24.  rate(i  from  Massachusetts,  and  organized  as  a  royal 

province.  It  was  the  earliest  royal  government  in 
New  England.  The  king,  reserving  a  negative  voice  to 
himself  and  his  officers,  engaged  to  continue  the  privilege 
of  an  assembly,  unless  he  or  his  heirs  should  deem  that 
privilege  "  an  inconvenience."  The  persons  he  first  named 


1682.      MASSACHUSETTS   CHARTER   OVERTHROWN.        471 

to  the  offices  of  president  and  council  were  residents  of  the 
colony,  and  friends  to  the  colonists;  but,  perceiving  that 
their  appointment  had  no  other  object  than  to  render  the 
transition  to  a  new  form  of  government  less  intolerable, 
they  accepted  office  reluctantly. 

At  length,  a  general  assembly  was  convened  at  jeso. 
Portsmouth.  Its  letter  to  Massachusetts  is  a  testi-  Mar' 16' 
mony  of  its  gratitude.  ""We  acknowledge  your  care  for 
us,"  it  was  thus  that  the  feeble  colony  addressed  its  more 
powerful  neighbor  :  "  we  thankfully  acknowledge  your  kind- 
ness while  we  dwelt  under  shadow,  owning  ourselves  deeply 
obliged  that,  on  our  earnest  request,  you  took  us  under  your 
government,  and  ruled  us  well.  If  there  be  opportunity  for 
us  to  be  any  wise  serviceable  to  you,  we  shall  show  how 
ready  we  are  to  embrace  it.  Wishing  the  presence  of  God 
to  be  with  you,  we  crave  the  benefit  of  your  prayers  on  us, 
who  are  separated  from  our  brethren." 

The  colony  then  proceeded  to  assert  its  rights  by  a  solemn 
decree,  the  first  in  its  new  code  :  "  No  act,  imposition,  law, 
or  ordinance  shall  be  valid,  unless  made  by  the  assembly 
and  approved  by  the  people."  Thus  did  New  Hampshire 
seize  the  earliest  moment  of  its  separate  existence  to  express 
the  great  principle  of  self-government,  and  take  its  place  by 
the  side  of  Massachusetts  and  Virginia.  When  its  code 
was  transmitted  to  England,  it  was  disapproved  both  for 
style  and  matter;  and  its  provisions  were  rejected  as  in- 
congruous and  absurd. 

Nor  was  Mason  successful  in  establishing  his  claims  to 
the  soil.  The  colonial  government  protected  the  colonists, 
and  restrained  his  exactions.  Hastening  to  England  to 
solicit  a  change,  the  pretended  proprietary  was  allowed  to 
make  such  arrangement  as  promised  auspicious  results  to  his 
own  interests.  Mason,  himself  a  party  in  suits  to  be  com- 
menced, was  authorized  to  select  the  person  to  be  appointed 
governor.  He  found  a  fit  agent  in  Edward  Cranfield,  a  man 
who  had  no  object  in  banishing  himself  to  the  wilds  of 
America  but  to  wrest  a  fortune  from  the  sawyers  and 
lumber-dealers  of  New  Hampshire.  By  a  deed  en-  j^f^. 
rolled  in  chancery,  Mason  surrendered  to  the  king 


472  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  XVI. 

one  fifth  part  of  all  quit-rents  for  the  support  of  the  gov- 
ernor, to  whom  he  gave  a  mortgage  of  the  whole  province 
for  twenty-one  years,  as  collateral  security  for  the  payment 
of  his  salary.  With  the  further  exclusive  right  to  the  an- 
ticipated harvest  of  fines  and  forfeitures,  Cranfield  deemed 
his  fortune  secure,  and,  relinquishing  a  profitable  employ- 
ment in  England,  embarked  for  the  banks  of  the  Piscataqua. 
1682.  But  the  first  assembly  which  he  convened  dispelled 
Nov.  14.  h'g  gOiden  visions.  The  "  rugged  "  legislators  voted 
him  a  gratuity  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  which  the 
needy  adventurer  greedily  accepted ;  but  they  would 
Jan320.  n°t  yield  their  liberties  ;  and  in  anger  he  dissolved 
them.  The  dissolution  of  an  assembly  was,  in  New 
England,  till  then  unheard  of.  Popular  discontent  became 
extreme  ;  and  a  crowd  of  rash  men  raised  the  cry  for  "  lib- 
erty and  reformation."  The  leader,  Edward  Gove,  an  un- 
lettered enthusiast,  was  confined  in  irons,  condemned  to  the 
death  that  barbarous  laws  denounced  against  treason,  and, 
having  been  transported  to  England,  was  for  three  years 
kept  a  prisoner  in  the  Tower  of  London.  The  lawsuits 
about  land  were  multiplied.  Packed  juries  and  partial 
judges  settled  questions  rapidly;  but  Mason  derived  no 
benefit  from  the  decision  in  his  favor,  for  he  could  neither 
get  possession  of  the  estates  nor  find  a  purchaser. 

Meantime,  Cranfield,  with  a  subservient  council,  began  to 
exercise  powers  of  legislation ;  and  he  still  hoped  to  amass 
a  fortune  by  taxes  and  arbitrary  fees  of  office.  Did  the 
towns  privately  send  an  agent  to  England,  he  would  toler- 
ate no  complaints ;  and  Vaughan,  who  had  been  active  in 
obtaining  depositions,  was  required  to  find  securities  for 
good  behavior.  He  refused,  declaring  that  he  had  broken 
no  law ;  and  the  governor  immediately  imprisoned  him. 

Cranfield  still  longed  for  money ;  stooping  to  false- 
hood, and  hastily  calling   an  assembly,  on  a  vague 
Jan.  14.  rumor  of  an  invasion,  he  demanded  a  sudden  supply 
of  the  means  of  defence.      The   representatives   of 
New  Hampshire  took  time  to  consider ;  and,  after  debate, 
they  negatived  the  bill  which  the  governor  had  prepared. 
To  intimidate  the  clergy,  he  forbade  the  usual  exercise  of 


1684.      MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER  OVERTHROWN.       473 

church  discipline.  In  Portsmouth,  Moody,  the  minister, 
replied  to  his  threats  by  a  sermon,  and  the  church  was 
inflexible.  Cranfield  next  invoked  the  ecclesiastical  laws 
of  England,  which  he  asserted  were  in  force  in  the  colony. 
The  people  were  ordered  to  keep  Christmas  as  a  festival, 
and  to  fast  on  the  thirtieth  of  January.  But  the  capital 
stroke  of  policy  was  an  order  that  all  persons  should  be 
admitted  to  the  Lord's  Supper  as  freely  as  in  the  Epis- 
copal or  Lutheran  Church,  and  that  the  English  liturgy 
should  in  certain  cases  be  adopted.  The  order  was  disre- 
garded. The  governor  himself  appointed  a  day,  on  which 
he  claimed  to  receive  the  elements  at  the  hands  of  Moody, 
after  the  forms  of  the  English  church.  Moody  refused ; 
was  prosecuted,  condemned,  and  imprisoned.  Religious 
worship  was  almost  entirely  broken  up.  But  the  people 
did  not  yield  ;  and  Cranfield,  vexed  at  the  stubbornness 
of  the  clergy,  gave  information  in  England  that,  "while 
the  clergy  were  allowed  to  preach,  no  true  allegiance  could 
be  found."  It  had  long  been  evident  "  there  could  be 
no  quiet  till  the  factious  preachers  were  turned  out  of  the 
province." 

One  more  attempt  was  made  to  impose  taxes  by  the  vote 
of  the  subservient  council.  That  the  people  might 
willingly  pay  them,  a  rumor  of  a  war  with  the  eastern  vl^\^ 
Indians  was  spread  abroad;  and  Cranfield  made  a 
visit  to  New  York,  under  pretence  of  concerting  measures 
with  the  governor  of  that  province.  The  English  ministry 
was  informed  that  his  majesty's  service  required  the  presence 
of  a  ship-of-war.  The  committee  of  plantations  had  been 
warned  that,  "  without  some  visible  force  to  keep  the  people 
of  New  Hampshire  under,  it  would  be  a  difficult  or  impossi- 
ble thing  to  execute  his  majesty's  commands  or  the  laws  of 
trade."  But  the  yeomanry  were  not  terrified  ;  illegal  taxes 
could  not  be  gathered ;  associations  were  formed  for  mutual 
support  in  resisting  their  collection.  At  Exeter,  the  sheriff 
was  driven  off  with  clubs,  and  the  farmers'  wives  had  pre- 
pared hot  water  to  scald  his  officer,  if  he  had  attempted  to 
attach  property  in  the  house.  At  Hampton,  he  was  beaten, 
robbed  of  his  sword,  seated  upon  a  horse,  with  a  rope  round 


474  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVL 

his  neck,  and  conveyed  out  of  the  province.  If  rioters  were 
committed,  they  were  rescued  by  a  new  riot ;  if  the  troop 
of  horse  of  the  militia  were  ordered  out,  not  a  man  obeyed 
the  summons. 

Cranfield,  in  despair,  wrote  imploringly  to  the  government 
in  England :  "  I  shall  esteem  it  the  greatest  happiness  in 
the  world  to  be  allowed  to  remove  from  these  unreasonable 
people.  They  cavil  at  the  royal  commission,  and  not  at  my 
person.  No  one  will  be  accepted  by  them,  who  puts  the 
king's  commands  in  execution."  His  conduct  met  with 
approbation ;  he  was  allowed  to  withdraw  from  the  prov- 
ince ;  but  the  government  in  England  had  no  design  of 
ameliorating  the  political  condition  of  the  colonists.  The 
character  of  New  Hampshire,  as  displayed  in  this  struggle 
for  freedom,  remained  unchanged.  It  was  ever  esteemed 
in  England  "  factious  in  its  economy,  affording  no  exem- 
plary precedents "  to  the  friends  of  arbitrary  power. 

Massachusetts  might,  perhaps,  still  have  defied  the  king, 
and  escaped  or  overawed  the  privy  council ;  but  the  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers  of  England,  fearing  the  colony  as 
their  rival,  discerned  how  their  monopoly  might  be  sustained, 
and  pressed  steadily  towards  their  object.  Their  complaints 
had  been  received  with  favor ;  their  selfish  reasoning  was 
heard  with  a  willingness  to  be  convinced ;  and  English 
statesmen  esteemed  Massachusetts  without  excuse. 

The  agents  of  Massachusetts  had  brought  with  them 
no  sufficient  power :  "  They  professed  their  willing- 
ness to  pay  duties  to  the  king  within  the  plantation,  provided 
they  might  be  allowed  to  import  the  necessary  commodities 
of  Europe  without  entering  first  in  England."     An  amnesty 
for  the   past  would  readily  have   been   conceded;   for  the 
future,  it  was  resolved  "  to  consider  the  whole  matter 
1677.       from  the  very  root,"  and  to  reduce  Massachusetts  to 
"  a  more  palpable  dependence."     That  this  might  be 
done  with  the  consent  of  the  colony,  the  agents  were  en 
joined  to  procure  larger  powers ;  but  no  larger  powers  were 
granted. 

It  was  against  fearful  odds  that  Massachusetts  continued 
the  struggle.  All  England  was  united.  Whatever  party 


1678.      MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER  OVERTHROWN        475 

triumphed,  the  mercantile  interest  would  readily  procure 
an  enforcement  of  the  laws  of  trade.  "  The  country's 
neglect  of  the  acts  of  navigation,"  wrote  the  agents,  "  has 
been  most  unhappy.  Without  a  compliance  in  that  matter, 
nothing  can  be  expected  but  a  total  breach."  "  All  the 
storms  of  displeasure  "  would  be  let  loose. 

It  was  not,  therefore,  a  surprise  when,  in  April, 
1678,  the  committee  of  plantations  directed  the  attor-       1678. 
ney  and  solicitor  general  to  report  whether  the  original 
charter  had  any  legal  entity,  what  was  the  effect  of  the  quo 
warranto  brought  against  it  in  1635,  and,  lastly,  whether  the 
corporation  had  forfeited   their   charter  by  malad- 
ministration of  its  powers.     In  the  following  month,  May  ie. 
the  opinion  of  the  crown  lawyers,  Jones  and  Win- 
nington,  was  given,  that  the  charter,  if  originally  good,  had 
not  been  dissolved  by  any  quo  warranto  or  judgment,  but 
that  the  misdemeanors  objected  against  the  corporation  were 
sufficient  to  avoid  their  patent.     The  committee  immediately 
decided  that  a  quo  warranto  should  be  brought  against  the 
charter  of  Massachusetts,  and  "  new  laws  framed  instead  of 
euch  as  were  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England ; "   and 
Randolph  was  at  once  appointed  "  collector  of  his  majesty's 
customs  in  New  England."     Many  of  the  committee  were 
confirmed  in  their  belief,  that  a  general  governor  and  a 
colonial  judicature  of  the  king's  appointment  were  become 
"  altogether  necessary." 

The  colony  resolved,  if  it  must  fall,  to  fall  with  dignity. 
Religion  had  been  the  motive  of  the  settlement;  religion 
was  now  its  counsellor.  The  fervors  of  the  most  ardent 
devotion  were  kindled ;  a  more  than  usually  solemn  form 
of  religious  observance  was  adopted;  a  synod  of  all  the 
churches  in  Massachusetts  was  convened,  to  inquire  into 
the  causes  of  the  dangers  to  New  England  liberty,  and  the 
mode  of  removing  the  evils. 

Meantime,  the  general  court  enacted  several  laws,  par- 
tially removing  the  grounds  of  complaint.  High  treason 
was  made  a  capital  offence ;  the  oath  of  allegiance  was 
required  of  every  male  above  sixteen  years  in  the  colony ; 
the  king's  arms  were  "  carved  by  an  able  artist,  and  erected 


476  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVL 

in  the  court-house."  As  to  the  laws  of  trade,  the  colony 
was  unwilling  to  forfeit  its  charter  and  its  religious  liberties 
on  a  pecuniary  question ;  and  yet  to  acknowledge  its  readi- 
ness to  submit  to  an  act  of  parliament  would  be  a  surrender 
of  the  privilege  of  independent  legislation.  It  therefore 
declared  that  "  the  acts  of  navigation  were  an  invasion  of 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  subjects  of  his  majesty  in 
the  colony,  they  not  being  represented  in  parliament." 
"  The  laws  of  England,"  it  added,  "  do  not  reach  America." 
The  general  court  then  gave  validity  to  the  laws  of  naviga- 
tion by  an  act  of  its  own.  "  We  would  not,"  so  they  wrote 
to  their  agents,  "  that  by  any  concessions  of  ours,  or  of  yours 
in  our  behalf,  any  the  least  stone  should  be  put  out  of  the 
wall ;  and  we  hope  that  his  majesty's  favor  will  be  as  the 
north  wind  to  scatter  the  clouds." 

Disregarding  the  constant  and  often  repeated  importuni- 
ties of  Randolph  for  the  arbitrary  overthrow  of  the  execu- 
tive and  legislative  liberties  of  Massachusetts,  the  committee 
of  plantations  proposed,  as  measures  to  be  immediately 
adopted,  that  the  bishop  of  London  should  appoint  a  min- 
ister to  go  and  reside  in  Boston,  and  that  conformists  to 
the  church  of  England  should  be  admitted  to  all  freedoms 
and  privileges  of  the  colony.  The  settlement  of  weightier 
matters  was  postponed  till  the  charter  should  be  set  aside 
by  a  court  of  law. 

The  difficulties  in  which  the  king  became  involved  by  his 
favor  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  by  the  dangers  appre- 
hended from  the  succession  of  a  Roman  Catholic  to  the 
crown,  enfeebled  and  delayed  the  measures  which  were  in 

preparation  to  overthrow  the  liberties  of  the  old  coun- 
1679.  try  and  the  new.  In  December,  1679,  the  agents, 

Stoughton  and  Bulkeley,  arrived  in  Boston.  About 
the  same  time  came  Randolph,  whose  patent  as  collector  was 
recognised  and  enrolled,  but  who  as  yet  received  no  help  in 
the  administration  of  his  office.  The  commands  of  the 
king,  that  other  agents  should  be  sent  over  with  unlimited 
powers,  were  not  followed.  Twice  did  Charles  II.  remon- 
strate against  the  disobedience  of  his  subjects ;  twice  did 
Randolph  cross  the  Atlantic  and  return  to  England,  to 


1683.      MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER  OVERTHROWN.       477 

assist  in  directing  the  government  against  Massachusetts. 
The  commonwealth  continued  its  system  of  procrastination. 
But  the  extravagances  and  crimes  of  the  anti-popery  party 
in  England  soon  brought  about  a  reaction ;  and  the  king, 
dissolving  parliament  and  making  use  of  subservient  courts, 
was  left  the  undisputed  master  in  his  kingdom.  A  letter 
from  him  to  Massachusetts  announced  categorically  that 
agents  must  be  sent  over  with  full  powers,  or  measures 
would  be  taken  "whereby  their  charter  might  be  legally 
evicted  and  made  void."  Moved  by  the  nearness  of  the 
danger,  the  general  court,  in  February,  1682,  selected  Joseph 
Dudley  and  John  Richards  as  its  agents.  France  had 
succeeded  in  bribing  the  king  to  betray  the  political  interests 
of  England  ;  Massachusetts  was  willing  to  purchase  of  him 
clemency  toward  its  liberties. 

The  commission  of  the  deputies  was  condemned  by  the 
privy  council  as  insufficient,  because  they  were  expressly 
enjoined  to  consent  to  nothing  that  should  infringe  the 
privileges  of  the  government  established  under  the 
charter.  They  were  ordered  to  obtain  full  powers  g^ 
for  the  entire  regulation  of  the  government,  or  the 
method  of  a  judicial  process  would  be  adopted.  The  agents 
represented  the  condition  of  the  colony  as  desperate.  A 
general  war  against  corporations  was  begun ;  many  cities 
in  England  had  surrendered.  Was  it  not  safest  for  the 
colony  to  decline  a  contest,  and  throw  itself  upon  the  favor 
or  forbearance  of  the  king?  Such  was  the  theme  of  uni- 
versal discussion  ;  all  families  spoke  of  it  at  their  firesides  ; 
it  entered  into  their  prayers;  it  filled  the  sermons  of  the 
ministers  ;  and,  finally,  Massachusetts  resolved,  in  a  manner 
that  showed  it  to  be  distinctly  the  sentiment  of  the  people, 
to  resign  the  territory  of  Maine,  which  was  held  by  purchase, 
but  not  to  concede  one  liberty  or  one  privilege  which  was 
held  by  charter.  If  liberty  was  to  receive  its  death-blow, 
better  that  it  should  die  by  the  violence  and  injustice  of 
others  than  by  their  own  weakness. 

Before  the  end  of  July,  1683,  the  quo  warranto       less, 
was  issued ;  Massachusetts  was  arraigned  before  an 
English  tribunal,  under  judges  holding  their  office  at  the 


478  COLONIAL  HISTOKY.  CHAP.  XVI. 

1683.  pleasure  of  the  crown;  and  in  October,  Randolph, 
Oct-  the  hated  messenger,  arrived  in  Boston  with  the 
writ.  At  the  same  time,  a  declaration  from  the  king  asked 
once  more  for  submission,  promising  as  a  reward  the  royal 
favor,  and  the  fewest  alterations  in  the  charter  consistent 
with  the  support  of  a  royal  government. 

The  people  of  Massachusetts  had  been  close  observers  of 
events  in  England.  They  had  seen  a  popular  party,  of 
which  Shaftesbury  assumed  the  guidance,  and  of  which  the 
house  of  commons  was  the  scene  of  victories,  rise,  act,  and 
become  defeated.  They  had  seen  Charles  II.  gradually 
establish  despotic  power.  They  had  seen  the  people  of 
England  apparently  acquiescing  in  the  discontinuation  of 
parliaments.  An  insurrection  had  indeed  been  planned ; 
the  doctrine  had  indeed  been  whispered  that  resistance  to 
oppression  was  lawful.  But  the  doctrine  had  been  expiated 
by  the  blood  of  Sidney  and  of  Russell ;  and  the 
July  21.  colonists  knew  that,  on  the  twenty-first  of  July,  the 
very  day  of  the  death  of  Russell,  the  university  of 
Oxford,  conforming  to  the  canons  of  the  reign  of  James  I., 
had  declared  "submission  and  obedience,  clear,  absolute, 
and  without  exception,  to  be  the  badge  and  character 
of  the  church  of  England."  They  knew  that  many  cities 
of  England  had  surrendered  their  charters ;  that  Lon- 
don itself,  the  metropolis  which  had  sheltered  Hampden 
against  Charles  I.,  had  found  resistance  ineffectual ;  and  to 
render  submission  in  Massachusetts  easy  by  showing  that 
opposition  was  desperate,  two  hundred  copies  of  the  pro- 
ceedings against  London  were  sent  over  to  be  dispersed 
among  the  people.  The  governor  and  assistants,  now  eigh- 
teen in  number,  were  persuaded  of  the  hopelessness  of 
further  resistance;  even  a  tardy  surrender  of  the 
Nov.  15.  charter  might  conciliate  the  monarch.  On  the  fif- 
teenth of  November,  they  therefore  resolved  to  re- 
mind the  king  of  his  promises,  and  "  not  to  contend  with 
his  majesty  in  a  court  of  law  ;"  they  would  "  send  agents, 
empowered  to  receive  his  majesty's  commands." 

The  magistrates  referred  this  vote   to  "  their  brethren 
the  deputies  "  for  concurrence.    During  a  full  fortnight  the 


1683.      MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER  OVERTHROWN.       479 

subject  was  debated,  that  a   decision   might  be   made   in 
harmony  with  the  people. 

"  Ought  the  government  of  Massachusetts,"  thus  it  was 
argued,  "submit  to  the  pleasure  of  the  court  as  to  alter- 
ation of  their  charter?  Submission  would  be  an  offence 
against  the  majesty  of  Heaven ;  the  religion  of  the  people 
of  New  England  and  the  court's  pleasure  cannot  consist 
together.  By  submission  Massachusetts  will  gain  nothing. 
The  court  design  an  essential  alteration,  destructive  to  the 
vitals  of  the  charter.  The  corporations  in  England  that 
have  made  an  entire  resignation  have  no  advantage  over 
those  that  have  stood  a  suit  in  law ;  but,  if  we  maintain  a 
suit,  though  we  should  be  condemned,  we  may  bring  the 
matter  to  chancery  or  to  a  parliament,  and  in  time  recover 
all  again.  We  ought  not  to  act  contrary  to  that  way  in 
which  God  hath  owned  our  worthy  predecessors,  who,  in 
1638,  when  there  was  a  quo  warranto  against  the  charter, 
durst  not  submit.  In  1664,  they  did  not  submit  to  the 
commissioners.  We,  their  successors,  should  walk  in  their 
steps,  and  so  trust  in  the  God  of  our  fathers  that  we  shall 
see  his  salvation.  Submission  would  gratify  our  adversaries 
and  grieve  our  friends.  Our  enemies  know  it  will  sound  ill 
in  the  world  for  them  to  take  away  the  liberties  of  a 
poor  people  of  God  in  a  wilderness.  A  resignation  less, 
will  bring  slavery  upon  us  sooner  than  otherwise  it 
would  be ;  and  will  grieve  our  friends  in  other  colonies, 
whose  eyes  are  now  upon  New  England,  expecting  that  the 
people  there  will  not,  through  fear,  give  a  pernicious  ex- 
ample unto  others. 

"  Blind  obedience  to  the  pleasure  of  the  court  cannot  be 
without  great  sin,  and  incurring  the  high  displeasure  of  the 
King  of  kings.  Submission  would  be  contrary  unto  that 
which  has  been  the  unanimous  advice  of  the  ministers, 
given  after  a  solemn  day  of  prayer.  The  ministers  of  God 
in  New  England  have  more  of  the  spirit  of  John  Baptist  in 
them,  than  now,  when  a  storm  hath  overtaken  them,  to  be 
reeds  shaken  with  the  wind.  The  priests  were  to  be  the 
first  that  set  their  foot  in  the  waters,  and  there  to  stand  till 
the  danger  be  past.  Of  all  men,  they  should  be  an  example 


480  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVI. 

to  the  Lord's  people,  of  faith,  courage,  and  constancy.  Un- 
questionably, if  the  blessed  Cotton,  Hooker,  Davenport, 
Mather,  Shepherd,  Mitchell,  were  now  living,  they  would, 
as  is  evident  from  their  printed  books,  say,  Do  not  sin  in 
giving  away  the  inheritance  of  your  fathers. 

"  Nor  ought  we  submit  without  the  consent  of  the  body  of 
the  people.  But  the  freemen  and  church  members  through- 
out New  England  will  never  consent  hereunto.  Therefore 
the  government  may  not  do  it. 

"  The  civil  liberties  of  New  England  are  part  of  the  inher- 
itance of  their  fathers ;  and  shall  we  give  that  inheritance 
away?  Is  it  objected  that  we  shall  be  exposed  to  great 
sufferings  ?  Better  suffer  than  sin.  It  is  better  to  trust 
the  God  of  our  fathers,  than  to  put  confidence  in  princes. 
If  we  suffer  because  we  dare  not  comply  with  the  wills  of 
men  against  the  will  of  God,  we  suffer  in  a  good  cause, 
and  shall  be  accounted  martyrs  in  the  next  generation  and 
at  the  great  day." 

At  the  request  of  the  select  men  in  Boston,  Increase 
Mather  did,  contrary  to  his  wont,  appear  at  a  town-meeting, 
and  did  encourage  and  excite  the  people  to  stand  by  their 
charter  privileges,  and  not  to  give  away  their  inheritance. 

The  decision  of  the  colony,  made  by  its  representa- 
No6v330  tives  on  the  last  day  of  the  month,  is  on  record : 
"  The   deputies   consent  not,   but   adhere    to    their 
former  bills." 

Addresses  were  forwarded  to  the  king,  urging  for- 
bearance ;  but  entreaty  and  remonstrance  were  vain. 
The  suit  which  had  been  begun  in  the  court  of  the  king's 
bench  was  dropped ;    a  scire  facias  was   issued  from   the 
court  of  chancery  in  England ;  and  before  the  colony 
June  is.  could  act  upon  it,  on  the  eighteenth  of  June,  1684, 
just  one  year  and  six  days  after  the  judgment  against 
the  city  of  London,  the  charter  was  conditionally  adjudged 
to  be  forfeited.     The  judgment  was  confirmed  on  the  first 
day  of  the  Michaelmas  term. 

Thus  fell  the  charter,  which  had  been  brought  by  the 
fleet  of  Winthrop  to  the  shores  of  New  England,  had  been 
cherished  with  anxious  care  through  every  vicissitude,  and 


1685.      MASSACHUSETTS  CHARTER  OVERTHROWN.       481 

had  thus  far  sustained  the  fabric  of  New  England  liberties. 
There  was  now  no  barrier  between  the  people  of  Massachu- 
setts and  the  absolute  will  of  the  court  of  England.  Was 
religion  in  danger?  Was  landed  property  secure?  Would 
commercial  enterprise  be  paralyzed  by  restrictions?  Was 
New  England  destined  to  learn  from  its  own  experience 
the  nature  of  despotism?  Massachusetts,  having  lost  its 
safeguards  against  absolute  power,  and  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  government,  the  privy  council  took  into  con- 
sideration what  was  to  be  done  with  it ;  and  the  majority 
of  them  were  of  the  opinion,  upheld  a  century  later  by 
Thurlow,  that  the  whole  power,  legislative  as  well  as  ex- 
ecutive, should  abide  in  the  crown.  Yet  one  statesman 
defended  at  the  council  board  the  principles  which,  in  a 
former  generation,  had  inspired  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and  the 
Earl  of  Southampton  to  secure  the  liberties  of  Englishmen 
to  Virginians.  "Halifax,"  so  narrates  a  British  historian, 
"  argued  with  great  energy  against  absolute  monarchy, 
and  in  favor  of  representative  government.  It  was  vain, 
he  said,  to  think  that  a  population,  sprung  from  the  Eng- 
lish stock  and  animated  by  English  feelings,  would  long 
bear  to  be  deprived  of  English  institutions.  Life,  he  ex- 
claimed, would  not  be  worth  having  in  a  country  where 
liberty  and  property  were  at  the  mercy  of  one  despotic 
master.  The  Duke  of  York  was  incensed  by  this  language, 
and  represented  to  his  brother  the  danger  of  retaining  in 
office  a  man  who  appeared  to  be  infected  with  all  the  worst 
notions  of  Marvell  and  Sydney." 

A  copy  of  the  judgment  against  the  charter  of 
Massachusetts  was  received  in  Boston  on  the  second 
of  July  of  the  following  year ;  but,  before  that  day, 
the  Duke  of  York  had  ascended  the  throne. 

Gloomy  forebodings  overspread  New  England.  The 
confederacy  of  the  Calvinist  colonies  had  already  died  of 
apathy.  The  restoration  of  monarchy  in  1660  had  been  the 
signal  for  its  decline.  By  its  articles  no  two  colonies  could 
be  joined  in  one  except  by  the  consent  of  the  whole ;  and 
the  charter  by  which  Charles  II.  annexed  New  Haven 
to  Connecticut  proved  that  there  was  a  higher  power, 

VOL.  I.  81 


482  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVI. 

which  overruled  their  decisions  and  paralyzed  their  acts. 
From  that  epoch  the  meetings  of  the  commissioners  were 
held  but  once  in  three  years.  The  dangers  of  the  Indian 
war  roused  their  dying  energies.  After  the  peace  at  Boston 
in  1681,  they  did  but  settle  a  few  small  war-claims;  their 

only  meeting  after  the  forfeiture  of  the  charter  of 
1684.  Massachusetts  was  in  September,  1684,  at  Hartford, 

from  which  place  they  appointed  a  day  of  fasting  to 
bewail  the  rebukes  and  threatening  from  Heaven,  and  their 
last  word  was  "  for  the  defence  of  the  Protestant  religion." 


CHAP.  XVII.        LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  488 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

8HAPTESBT7RY   AND    LOCKE    LEGISLATE   FOB    CAROLINA. 

MEANTIME,  civilization  had  advanced  at  the  South  ;  and 
twin  stars  were  emerging  beyond  the  limits  of  Virginia, 
in  the  country  over  which  Soto  had  rambled  in  quest  of 
gold,  where  Calvinists,  befriended  by  Coligny,  had  sought 
a  refuge,  and  where  Raleigh  had  attempted  to  found  colo- 
nial principalities. 

Massachusetts  and  Carolina  were  both  colonized  under 
proprietary  charters,  and  of  both  the  charters  were  sub- 
verted ;  but,  while  the  proprietaries  of  the  former,  united  by 
the  love  of  religious  liberty,  were  emigrants  themselves,  the 
proprietaries  of  the  latter  were  a  company  of  English  court- 
iers, combined  for  the  purpose  of  a  vast  speculation  in 
lands.  The  government  established  in  Massachusetts  was 
essentially  popular,  and  was  the  growth  of  the  soil ;  the 
constitution  of  Carolina  was  invented  in  England.  Massa- 
chusetts was  originally  colonized  by  a  feeble  band  of  suffer- 
ing yet  resolute  exiles,  and  its  institutions  were  the  natural 
result  of  tne  good  sense  and  instinct  for  liberty  of  an  agri- 
cultural people  ;  Carolina  was  settled  under  the  auspices  of 
the  wealthiest  and  most  influential  nobility,  and  its  funda- 
mental laws  were  framed  with  forethought  by  the  most 
sagacious  politician  and  the  most  profound  philosopher  of 
England  of  that  day.  The  king,  through  an  obsequious 
judiciary,  annulled  the  government  of  Massachusetts ;  the 
colonists  repudiated  the  constitutions  of  Carolina.  The 
principles  of  the  former  possessed  an  inherent  vitality, 
which  nothing  has  been  able  to  destroy ;  the  frame  of  the 
latter,  as  it  disappeared,  left  no  trace  of  its  transitory  ex- 
istence, except  in  the  institutions  which  sprung  from  its 
decay. 


484  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVII. 

The  reign  of  Charles  II.  was  not  less  remarkable  for  the 
rapacity  of  the  courtiers  than  for  the  dissoluteness  of  the 
monarch.  The  southern  part  of  our  republic,  ever  regarded 
as  capable  of  producing  all  the  staples  that  thrive  on  the 
borders  of  the  tropics,  was  coveted  by  statesmen  who  con- 
trolled the  patronage  of  the  British  realms.  The 
M^324  province  of  Carolina,  extending  from  the  thirty-sixth 
degree  of  north  latitude  to  the  river  San  Matheo, 
was  accordingly  erected  into  one  territory ;  and  the  histo- 
rian Clarendon,  the  covetous  though  experienced  minister, 
hated  by  the  people,  faithful  only  to  the  king;  Monk,  so 
conspicuous  in  the  restoration,  and  now  ennobled  as  Diike 
of  Albemarle ;  Lord  Craven,  a  brave  Cavalier,  an  old  soldier 
of  the  German  discipline,  supposed  to  be  husband  to  the 
queen  of  Bohemia ;  Lord  Ashley  Cooper,  afterwards  Earl 
of  Shaftesbury ;  Sir  John  Colleton,  a  royalist  of  no  histori- 
cal notoriety ;  Lord  John  Berkeley,  with  his  younger  brother, 
Sir  William  Berkeley,  the  governor  of  Virginia ;  and  the 
passionate,  ignorant,  and  not  too  honest  Sir  George  Car- 
teret,  —  were  constituted  its  proprietors  and  immediate 
sovereigns.  Their  authority  was  nearly  absolute ;  nothing 
was  reserved  but  a  barren  allegiance.  Avarice  is  the  vice 
of  declining  years ;  most  of  the  proprietaries  were  past 
middle  life.  They  begged  the  country  under  pretence  of 
"  a  pious  zeal  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel ; "  and 
their  sole  object  was  the  increase  of  their  own  wealth  and 
dignity. 

The  grant  had  hardly  been  made  before  it  became  appar- 
ent that  there  were  competitors,  claiming  possession  of  the 
same  territory.  It  was  included  by  the  Spaniards  within 
the  limits  of  Florida ;  and  the  castle  of  St.  Augustine  was 
deemed  proof  of  the  actual  possession  of  an  indefinite  ad- 
jacent country.  Spain  had  never  formally  acknowl- 
May23.  edged tne  English  title  to  any  possessions  in  America ; 
and,  when  a  treaty  was  finally  concluded  at  Madrid, 
it  did  but  faintly  concede  the  right  of  England  to  her  trans- 
atlantic colonies,  and  to  a  continuance  of  commerce  in  "  the 
accustomed  seas." 

And  not  Spain  only  claimed  Carolina.     In  1630,  a  patent 


1663.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  485 

for  all  the  territory  had  been  issued  to  Sir  Robert  Heath ; 
and  there  is  room  to  believe  that,  in  1639,  permanent  plan- 
tations were  planned  and  perhaps  attempted  by  his  assign. 
William  Hawley  appeared  in  Virginia  as  "governor  of 
Carolina,"  the  land  between  the  thirty-first  and  thirty-sixth 
parallels  of  latitude ;  and  leave  was  granted  by  the  Virginia 
legislature  that  it  might  be  colonized  by  one  hundred  per- 
sons from  Virginia,  "  freemen,  being  single,  and  dis- 
engaged of  debt."  The  attempts  were  certainly  lees, 
unsuccessful,  for  the  patent  was  now  declared  void, 
because  the  purposes  for  which  it  was  granted  had  never 
been  fulfilled. 

More  stubborn  rivals  were  found  to  have  already  leeo,  or 
planted  themselves  on  the  river  Cape  Fear.  Hardly  166>l- 
had  New  England  received  within  its  bosom  a  few  scanty 
colonies,  before  her  citizens  and  her  sons  began  roaming  the 
continent  and  traversing  the  seas  in  quest  of  untried  fortune. 
A  little  bark,  navigated  by  New  England  men,  had  hovered 
off  the  coast  of  Carolina;  they  had  carefully  watched  the 
dangers  of  its  navigation ;  had  found  their  way  into  the 
Cape  Fear  River ;  had  purchased  of  the  Indian  chiefs  a  title 
to  the  soil,  and  had  boldly  planted  a  little  colony  of  herds- 
men far  to  the  south  of  any  English  settlement  on  the  con- 
tinent. Already  they  had  partners  in  London,  and 
hardly  was  the  grant  of  Carolina  made  known,  before  AU&'Q. 
their  agents  pleaded  their  discovery,  occupancy,  and 
purchase,  as  affording  a  valid  title  to  the  soil,  while  they 
claimed  the  privileges  of  self-government  as  a  natural  right. 
A  compromise  was  offered ;  and  the  proprietaries,  in  their 
"proposals  to  all  that  would  plant  in  Carolina,"  promised 
emigrants  from  New  England  religious  freedom,  a  governor 
and  council  to  be  elected  from  among  a  number  whom  the 
emigrants  themselves  should  nominate,  a  representative  as- 
sembly, independent  legislation,  subject  only  to  the  negative 
of  the  proprietaries,  land  at  a  rent  of  a  halfpenny  an  acre, 
and  such  freedom  from  customs  as  the  charter  would  war- 
rant. Yet  the  lands  round  Cape  Fear  were  not  inviting 
to  men  who  could  choose  their  abodes  from  the  whole 
wilderness  ;  the  herds,  and  the  fields  in  which  they  browsed, 


48(5  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVII. 

were  for  a  season  abandoned  to  the  care  of  friendly  Indians  ; 
and  the  emigrants,  revisiting  their  former  homes,  "  spread 
a  reproach  on  the  harbor  and  the  soil."  But  the  colony 
was  not  at  once  wholly  deserted ;  and,  if  its  sufferings  be- 
came extreme,  Massachusetts,  the  young  mother  of  colonies, 
not  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  her  children,  listened  to  their 
prayer  "  for  some  relief  in  their  distress,"  and  in  May, 
166T.  1667,  ministered  to  their  wants  by  a  general  contri- 
bution through  her  settlements.  The  infant  town 
planted  on  Oldtown  Creek,  near  the  south  side  of  Cape  Fear 
River,  did  not  prosper;  the  Indians  took  offence  at  the 
New  England  planters,  and  with  their  bows  and  arrows  rid 
themselves  of  the  intruders.  Other  causes  than  the  roving 
restlessness  of  the  Independents  from  Massachusetts  pro- 
duced "  the  distractions "  which  ensued ;  nature  herself, 
especially  in  the  wilderness,  prompts  and  encourages  the 
love  of  freedom. 

The  conditions  offered  to  the  colony  of  Cape  Fear  "  were 
not  intended  for  the  meridian "  of  Virginia.  "  There," 
said  the  proprietaries,  in  their  instructions  to  Sir  William 
Berkeley,  "  we  hope  to  find  more  facile  people  "  than  the 
New  England  men.  Yet  they  intrusted  the  affair  entirely 
to  Sir  William's  management.  He  was  to  get  settlers  as 
cheaply  as  possible ;  yet  at  any  rate  to  get  settlers. 

Like  Massachusetts,  Virginia  was  the  mother  of  a  cluster 
of  states ;  like  the  towns  of  New  England,  the  plantations 
of  Virginia  extended  along  the  sea.     The  country  on  Nan- 
semund  River  had  been  settled  as  early  as  1609 ;  in 
1622.       1622,  the  adventurous  Pory,  then  secretary  of  the  Old 
Dominion,  travelled  over  land  to  the  South   River, 
Chowan,  and,  on  his  return,  celebrated  the  kindness  of  the 
native  people,  the  fertility  of  the  country,  and  the  happy 
climate,  that  yielded  two  harvests  in  each  year.     If  no  im- 
mediate colonization  ensued,  if  the  plans  formed  in  England 
by  Sir  Robert  Heath,  or  by  Lord  Maltravers,  Heath's  as- 
sign, were  never  realized,  the  desire  of  extending  the 
jan!       settlements  to  the  south  still  prevailed;  and,  twenty 
years  after  the  excursion  of  Pory,  a  company,  that 
1643.       had  heard  of  the  river  that  lay  south-west  of  the  Ap- 


1663.  LEGISLATION  FOB  CAROLINA.  487 

poraattox,   obtained   leave   of  the   Virginia  legislature   to 
prosecute  the  discovery,  under  the  promise  of  a  fourteen 
years'  monopoly  of  the  profits.     Exploring  parties  to  the 
south    not   less   than   to   the   west,   to    Southern   Virginia 
or  Carolina,  continued  to  be  encouraged  by  similar 
grants.    Clayborne,  the  early  trader  in  Maryland,  still       1652. 
cherished  a  fondness  for  discovery ;  and  the  sons  of 
Governor  Yeardley  wrote  to  England  with  pride,  that  the 
northern  country  of  Carolina  had  been  explored  by  "  Vir- 
ginians born." 

We  are  not  left  to   conjecture  who   of  the   inhabitants 
of  Nansemund  of  that  day  first  traversed  the  intervening 
forests  and  came  upon  the  rivers  that  flow  into  Albemarle 
Sound.     The  company  was  led  by  Roger  Green  ;  and 
his  services  were  rewarded  by  the  grant  of  a  thousand      $Q 
acres,  while  ten  thousand  acres  were  offered  to  any 
hundred  persons  who  would  plant  on  the  banks  of  the  Roa- 
noke,  or  on  the  south  side  of  the  Chowan  and  its  tributary 
streams.     These  conditional  grants  seem  not  to  have  taken 
effect ;   yet  the  enterprise  of  Virginia  did  not  flag ;   and 
Thomas   Dew,   once  the   speaker   of  the   assembly, 
formed  a  plan  for  exploring  the  navigable  rivers  still       ^j' 
further  to  the  south,  between  Cape   Hatteras   and 
Cape  Fear.     How  far  this  spirit  of  discovery  led  to  imme- 
diate  emigration,  it  is  not   possible   to   determine.     The 
county  of  Nansemund  had  long  abounded  in  non-conform- 
ists ;   and   it  is  certain  the  first  settlements  on  Albemarle 
Sound  were  a  result  of  spontaneous  overflowings  from  Vir- 
ginia.    Perhaps  a  few  vagrant  families  were  planted  within 
the  limits  of  Carolina  before  the  restoration.     At  that  pe- 
riod, men  who  were  impatient  of  enforced  religious  con- 
formity and   distrusted  the  new  government  in  Virginia, 
plunged  more  deeply  into  the  forests.     It  is  known  that,  in 
1662,   the  chief  of  a  tribe  of  Indians   granted  to  George 
Durant  the  neck  of  land  which  still  bears  his  name  ;  and,  in 
the  following  year,  George   Cathmaid   could   claim 
from  Sir  William  Berkeley  a  large  grant  of  land  upon  A|$f  i. 
the  sound,  as  a  reward  for  having  established  sixty- 
seven  persons  in  Carolina.     This  may  have  been  the  oldest 


488  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVII. 

considerable  settlement;  thei'e  is  reason  to  believe  that 
volunteer  emigrants  had  preceded  them.  In  September, 
the  colony  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the  proprietaries ; 
and  Berkeley  was  commissioned  to  institute  a  government 
over  the  region,  which,  in  honor  of  Monk,  received  the 
name  that  time  has  transferred  to  the  bay.  The  plantations 
were  chiefly  on  the  north-east  bank  of  the  Chowan ;  and,  as 
the  mouth  of  that  river  is  north  of  the  thirty-sixth  parallel 
of  latitude,  they  were  not  included  in  the  first  patent  of 
Carolina.  Yet  Berkeley,  who  was  but  governor  of  Virginia, 
and  was  a  joint  proprietary  of  Carolina,  obeyed  his  inter- 
est as  landholder  more  than  his  duty  as  governor ;  and, 
severing  the  settlement  from  the  Ancient  Dominion,  estab- 
lished a  separate  government  over  men  who  had  fled  into 
the  woods  for  the  enjoyment  of  independence,  and  who 
had  already,  at  least  in  part,  obtained  a  grant  of  their  lands 
from  the  aboriginal  lords  of  the  soil. 

Berkeley  did  not  venture  to  discuss  the  political  princi- 
ples or  dispute  the  possessions  of  these  pioneers.  He  ap- 
pointed William  Drummond,  an  emigrant  to  Virginia  from 
Scotland,  probably  a  Presbyterian,  a  man  of  prudence  and 
popularity,  deeply  imbued  with  the  passion  for  popular 
liberty,  to  be  the  governor  of  Northern  Carolina  ;  and,  con- 
forming to  instructions  from  his  associates,  he  instituted  a 
simple  form  of  government,  a  Carolina  assembly,  and  an 
easy  tenure  of  lands;  leaving  the  infant  people  to  enjoy  lib- 
erty of  conscience,  and  to  forget  the  world,  till  quit- 
1666.  rents  should  fall  due.  Such  was  the  origin  of  fixed 
settlements  in  North  Carolina.  The  child  of  ecclesi- 
astical oppression  was  swathed  in  independence. 

But  not  New  England  and  Virginia  only  turned  their 
eyes  to   the   southern   part    of    our    republic.      In 
1663.       1663,  several  planters  of  Barbados,  dissatisfied  with 
their  condition,  and  desiring  to  establish  a  colony 
under  their  own  exclusive  direction,  despatched  a 
to      vessel  to  examine  the  country.     The  careful  explor- 
ers reported  that  the  climate  was  agreeable  and  the 
soil  of  various  qualities ;  thai  game  abounded  ;   that  the 
natives  promised  peace.     They  purchased  of  the  Indians 


1665.  LEGISLATION  FOB  CAROLINA.  489 

a  tract  of  land  thirty-two  miles  square,  on  Cape  Fear  River, 
near  the  neglected  settlement  of  the  New  England- 
ers  ;  and  their  employers  begged  of  the  proprietaries  ices, 
a  confirmation  of  the  purchase  and  a  separate  charter 
of  government.  Not  all  their  request  was  granted ;  yet 
liberal  terms  were  proposed ;  and  Sir  John  Yeamans,  the 
son  of  a  Cavalier,  a  needy  baronet,  who,  to  mend  his  for- 
tune, had  become  a  Barbados  planter,  was  appointed 
governor,  with  a  jurisdiction  extending  from  Cape  ices. 
Fear  to  the  San  Matheo.  The  country  was  called 
Clarendon.  "  Make  things  easy  to  the  people  of  New 
England  ;  from  thence  the  greatest  supplies  are  expected : " 
such  were  his  instructions.  Under  an  ample  grant  of  liber- 
ties for  the  colony,  he  conducted,  in  the  autumn  of  1665, 
a  band  of  emigrants  from  Barbados,  and  on  the  south  bank 
of  Cape  Fear  River  laid  the  foundation  of  a  town,  which 
flourished  so  little  that  its  site  is  at  this  day  a  subject  of 
dispute.  Yet  the  colony,  barren  as  were  the  plains  around 
them,  exported  boards  and  shingles  and  staves  to  Bar- 
bados. The  traffic  was  profitable ;  emigration  increased ; 
the  influence  of  the  proprietaries  fostered  its  growth , 
and  it  has  been  said  that,  in  1666,  the  plantation  con- 
tained eight  hundred  souls.  Many  preferred  it,  as  a  place 
of  residence,  to  Barbados ;  and  Yeamans,  who  understood 
the  nature  of  colonial  trade,  managed  its  affairs  without  re- 
proach. 

Meantime,  the  proprietaries,  having  collected  minute 
information  respecting  the  coast,  coveted  an  extension  of 
their  domains;  and,  indifferent  to  the  claims  of  Virginia, 
and  in  open  contempt  of  the  garrison  of  Spain  at  St.  Augus- 
tine, Clarendon  and  his  associates  easily  obtained 
from  the  king  a  new  charter,  which  granted  to  them  jj^i^ 
all  the  land  lying  between  twenty-nine  degrees  and 
thirty-six  degrees  thirty  minutes,  north  latitude,  from  the 
Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  soil,  and,  under  the 
limitation  of  a  nominal  allegiance,  the  sovereignty,  were 
theirs,  with  the  power  of  legislation,  subject  to  the  consent 
of  the  future  freemen  of  the  colony.  The  grant  of  privi- 
leges was  ample,  like  those  to  Rhode  Island  and  Connect!- 


490  COLONIAL   HISTORY  CHAP.  XVII. 

cut.  An  express  clause  opened  the  way  for  religious 
freedom;  another  held  out  to  the  proprietaries  a  hope  of 
revenue  from  colonial  customs,  to  be  imposed  in  colonial 
ports  by  Carolina  legislatures  ;  another  gave  them  the  power 
of  erecting  cities  and  manors,  counties  and  baronies,  and  of 
establishing  orders  of  nobility,  with  other  than  English  titles. 
The  power  to  levy  troops,  to  erect  fortifications,  to  make 
war  by  sea  and  land  on  their  enemies,  and  to  exercise  mar- 
tial law  in  cases  of  necessity,  was  not  withheld.  Every  favor 
was  extended  to  the  proprietaries ;  nothing  was  neglected 

but  the  interests  of  the  English  sovereign  and  the 
1668.  rights  of  the  colonists.  Imagination  encouraged 

every  extravagant  hope ;  and  Ashley  Cooper,  Earl 
of  Shaftesbury,  the  most  active  and  the  most  able  of  the 
corporators,  was  deputed  by  them  to  frame  for  the  dawning 
states  a  perfect  constitution,  worthy  to  endure  throughout 
all  ages. 

Shaftesbury  was  at  this  time  in  the  full  maturity  of  his 
genius ;  celebrated  for  eloquence,  philosophic  acuteness,  and 
sagacity;  high  in  power,  and  of  aspiring  ambition.  Born 
to  hereditary  wealth,  the  pupil  of  Prideaux  had  given  his 
early  years  to  the  assiduous  pursuit  of  knowledge  ;  and  from 
boyhood  the  intellectual  part  of  his  nature  held  the  mastery 
over  the  love  of  indulgence  and  luxury.  Connected  with 
the  landed  aristocracy  of  England,  cradled  in  politics,  and 
chosen  a  member  of  parliament  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  his 
long  public  career  was  checkered  by  the  greatest  varieties 
of  success.  His  party  connections  were  affected  by  the  rev- 
olutions of  the  times ;  and  he  has  been  charged  with  politi- 
cal inconsistency.  But  men  of  great  mental  power,  though 
they  may  often  change  their  instruments,  change  their 
principles  and  their  purposes  rarely.  The  fruit  is  as  the 
seed.  He  often  shifted  his  associates,  never  his  purposes ; 
alike  the  enemy  to  absolute  monarchy  and  to  democratic 
influence,  he  connected  his  own  aggrandizement  with  the 
privileges  and  interests  of  British  commerce,  of  Protestant 
religious  liberty,  and  of  the  landed  aristocracy  of  England. 
In  the  Long  Parliament,  he  acted  with  the  people  against 
absolute  power;  but,  while  Vane  adhered  to  the  parliament 


1668.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  491 

from  love  of  popular  rights,  Shaftesbury  adhered  to  it  as  the 
guardian  of  aristocratic  liberty.  Again,  under  Cromwell, 
Shaftesbury  was  still  the  opponent  of  arbitrary  power.  At 
the  restoration,  he  would  not  tolerate  an  agreement  with 
the  king ;  such  agreement,  at  that  time,  could  not  but  have 
been  democratic,  and  adverse  to  the  privileges  of  the  nobil- 
ity, which,  therefore,  in  the  plenitude  of  the  royal  power, 
sought  an  ally  against  the  people.  When  Charles  II.  showed 
a  disposition  to  become,  like  Louis  XI V.,  superior  to  the 
gentry  as  well  as  to  the  democracy,  Shaftesbury  joined  the 
party  opposed  to  the  ultra  royalists,  not  as  renouncing  his 
principles,  but  from  hostility  to  the  supporters  of  preroga- 
tive. The  party  which  he  represented,  the  great  aristoc- 
racy of  blood  and  of  wealth,  had  to  sustain  itself  between 
the  people  on  one  side  and  the  monarch  on  the  other.  The 
"  nobility  "  was,  in  his  view,  the  "  rock  "  of  "  English  princi- 
ples ; "  the  power  of  the  peerage  and  of  arbitrary  monarchy 
were  "  as  two  buckets,  of  which  one  goes  down  exactly  as 
the  other  goes  up."  In  the  people  of  England,  as  the  depos- 
itory of  power  and  freedom,  Shaftesbury  had  no  confidence  ; 
his  system  protected  wealth  and  privilege ;  and  he  desired  to 
deposit  the  conservative  principles  of  society  in  the  exclusive 
custody  of  the  favored  classes.  Cromwell  had  proposed,  and 
Vane  had  advocated,  a  reform  in  parliament ;  Shaftesbury 
showed  no  disposition  to  diminish  the  influence  of  the 
nobility  over  the  lower  house. 

Such  were  the  political  principles  of  Shaftesbury,  and 
his  personal  character  was  analogous.  He  loved  wealth 
without  being  a  slave  to  avarice;  and,  though  he  would 
have  made  no  scruple  of  "  robbing  the  devil  or  the  altar," 
he  would  not  pervert  the  course  of  judgment,  or  be  bribed 
into  the  abandonment  of  his  convictions.  If,  as  lord  chan- 
cellor, he  sometimes  received  a  present,  his  judgment  was 
never  suspected  of  a  bias.  Careless  of  precedents,  us;iur''S 
and  bar-rules,  he  was  quick  to  discern  the  right,  and  to 
render  an  equitable  decision.  Everybody  applauded  but 
the  lawyers ;  they  censured  the  contempt  of  ancient  forms, 
the  diminished  weight  of  authority,  and  the  neglect  of  legal 
erudition ;  the  historians,  the  poets,  common  fame,  even  hi* 


492  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XV1L 

enemies,  declared  that  never  had  a  judge  possessed  more 
discerning  eyes  or  cleaner  hands ; 

Unbribed,  unbought,  the  wretched  to  redress, 
Swift  of  despatch,  and  easy  of  access. 

Nobody  questioned  that,  as  a  royalist  minister,  he  might 
have  "  freely  gathered  the  golden  fruit ; "  but  he  disdained 
the  monarch's  favor,  and  stood  firmly  by  the  vested  rights 
of  his  order. 

In  person  he  was  small,  and  alike  irritable  and  versatile. 
It  belongs  to  such  a  man  to  have  cunning  rather  than  wis- 
dom ;  celerity  rather  than  dignity ;  the  high  powers  of  ab- 
straction and  generalization  rather  than  the  still  higher 
power  of  successful  activity.  He  transacted  business  with 
an  admirable  ease  and  mastery,  for  his  lucid  understanding 
delighted  in  genera]  principles ;  but  he  could  not  success- 
fully control  men,  for  he  had  neither  conduct  in  the  direc- 
tion of  a  party  nor  integrity  in  the  choice  of  means.  He 
would  use  a  prejudice  as  soon  as  an  argument ;  would  stim- 
ulate a  superstition  as  soon  as  wake  truth  to  the  battle  ; 
would  flatter  a  crowd  or  court  a  king.  Having  debauched 
his  mind  into  a  contempt  for  the  people,  he  attempted  to 
guide  them  by  inflaming  their  passions. 

This  contempt  for  humanity  punishes  itself ;  Shaf tesbury 
was  destitute  of  the  healthy  judgment  which  comes  from 
sympathy  with  his  fellow-men.  Alive  to  the  force  of  an 
argument,  he  never  could  judge  of  its  effect  on  other  minds  ; 
his  subtle  wit,  prompt  to  seize  on  the  motives  to  conduct 
and  the  natural  affinities  of  parties,  could  not  discern  the 
moral  obstacles  to  new  combinations.  He  had  no  natural 
sense  of  propriety ;  he  despised  gravity,  as,  what  indeed  it 
often  is,  the  affectation  of  dulness  ;  and  thought  it  no  con- 
descension to  charm  by  drollery.  Himself  without  venera- 
tion for  prejudice  or  prescriptive  usage,  he  never  could 
estimate  the  difficulty  of  abrogating  a  form  or  overcoming 
a  prejudice.  His  mind  regarded  purposes  and  results,  and 
he  did  not  so  much  defy  appearances  as  rest  ignorant  of 
their  power.  Desiring  to  exclude  the  Duke  of  York  from 
the  throne,  no  delicacy  of  sentiment  restrained  him  from 
proposing  the  succession  to  the  uncertain  issue  of  an  aban- 


1669.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  493 

doned  woman,  who  had  once  been  mistress  to  the  king; 
and  he  saw  no  cruelty  in  urging  Charles  II.  to  divorce  a 
confiding  wife,  who  had  the  blemish  of  barrenness. 

The  same  want  of  common  feeling,  joined  to  a  surprising 
mobility,  left  Shaftesbury  in  ignorance  of  the  energy  of  re- 
ligious convictions.  Skeptics  are  apt  to  be  superstitious ;  the 
moral  restlessness  of  perpetual  doubt  often  superinduces 
nervous  timidity.  Shaftesbury  would  not  fear  God,  but 
he  watched  the  stars ;  he  did  not  receive  Christianity,  and 
he  could  not  reject  astrology. 

Excellent  in  counsel,  Shaftesbury  was  poor  as  an  executive 
agent.  His  restless  spirit  fretted  at  delay,  and  grew  fever- 
ish with  impatient  waiting.  His  eager  impetuosity  betrayed 
the  designs  of  the  poor  dissembler ;  and,  when  unoccupied, 
his  vexed  and  anxious  mind  lost  its  balance,  and  planned 
desperate  counsels.  In  times  of  tranquillity,  the  crafty  in- 
triguer was  too  passionate  for  success ;  but,  when  the  storm 
was  really  come,  and  old  landmarks  were  washed  away,  and 
the  wonted  lights  in  the  heavens  were  darkened,  Shaftesbury 
was  a  daring  and  successful  statesman ;  for  he  knew  how  to 
evolve  a  rule  of  conduct  from  general  principles. 

At  a  time  when  John  Locke  was  unknown  to  the 
world,  Shaftesbury  detected  the  riches  of  his  mind,  1669. 
and  chose  him  for  a  friend  and  adviser  in  the  work 
of  legislation  for  Carolina.  Locke  was  at  this  time  in  the 
midway  of  life,  adorning  the  clearest  understanding  with 
gentleness,  good  humor,  and  ingenuousness.  Of  a  sunny 
disposition,  he  could  be  choleric  without  malice,  and  gay 
without  levity.  He  was  a  most  dutiful  son.  In  dialec- 
tics, he  was  unparalleled,  except  by  his  patron.  Esteeming 
the  pursuit  of  truth  the  first  object  of  life,  and  its  attain- 
ment as  the  criterion  of  dignity,  he  never  sacrificed  a  con- 
viction to  an  interest.  The  ill  success  of  the  democratic 
revolution  of  England  had  made  him  an  enemy  to  popular 
innovations.  He  had  seen  the  commons  of  England  inca- 
pable of  retaining  the  precious  conquest  they  had  made; 
and,  being  neither  a  theorist  like  Milton,  nor  a  tory  like 
Tillotson,  he  cherished  what  at  that  day  were  called  English 
principles ;  looking  to  the  aristocracy  as  the  surest  adver 


494  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVII. 

saries  of  arbitrary  power.  He  did  not,  like  Sydney,  sigli  for 
the  good  old  cause  of  a  republic ;  nor,  like  Penn,  confide  in 
the  instincts  of  humanity ;  but  regarded  the  privileges  of 
the  nobility  as  the  guarantees  of  English  liberties.  Em- 
phatically free  from  avarice,  he  could  yet,  as  a  political 
writer,  deify  liberty  under  the  form  of  wealth ;  to  him 
slavery  seemed  no  unrighteous  institution ;  and  he  defines 
"  political  power  to  be  the  right  of  making  laws  for  regu- 
lating and  preserving  property."  Having  no  kindling  love 
for  ideal  excellence,  he  abhorred  the  designs  and  disbelieved 
the  promises  of  democracy ;  he  could  sneer  at  the  enthusi- 
asm of  Friends.  Unlike  Penn,  he  believed  it  possible  to 
construct  the  future  according  to  the  forms  of  the  past.  No 
voice  of  God  within  his  soul  called  him  away  from  the 
usages  of  England;  and,  as  he  went  forth  to  lay  the  foxinda- 
tions  of  civil  government  in  the  wilderness,  he  bowed  his 
understanding  to  the  persuasive  influence  of  Shaftesbury. 
But  the  political  institutions  of  the  United  States  were 
not  formed  by  giant  minds,  or  "  nobles  after  the  flesh." 
American  history  knows  but  one  avenue  to  success  in  Amer- 
ican legislation,  freedom  from  ancient  prejudice.  The  best 
lawgivers  in  our  colonies  first  became  as  little  children. 

In  framing  constitutions  for  Carolina,  Locke  forgot  that 
there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  creation  of  laws ;  for  laws 
are  but  the  arrangement  of  men  in  society,  and  good  laws 
are  but  the  arrangement  of  men  in  society  in  their  just  and 
natural  relations.  It  is  the  prerogative  of  self-government 
that  it  adapts  itself  to  every  circumstance  which  can  arise. 
Its  institutions,  if  often  defective,  are  always  appropriate ; 
for  they  are  the  exact  representation  of  the  condition  of  a 
people,  and  can  be  evil  only  because  there  are  evils  in  so- 
ciety, exactly  as  a  coat  may  suit  an  ill-shaped  person.  Habits 
of  thought  and  action  fix  their  stamp  on  the  public  code ; 
the  faith,  the  prejudices,  the  hopes  of  a  people,  may  be 
read  there  ;  and,  as  knowledge  advances,  each  erroneous 
judgment,  each  perverse  enactment,  yields  to  the  embodied 
force  of  the  common  will.  The  method  to  success  in  legis- 
lating for  Carolina  could  only  have  been  the  counsels  of  the 
emigrants  themselves. 


1669.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  495 

The  constitutions  for  Carolina  merit  attention  as  the  only 
continued  attempt  within  the  United  States  to  connect  po- 
litical power  with  hereditary  wealth.  America  was  singu- 
lai-ly  rich  in  every  form  of  representative  government;  its 
political  life  was  so  varied  that,  in  modern  constitutions, 
hardly  a  method  of  constituting  an  upper  or  a  popular 
house  has  thus  far  been  suggested,  of  which  the  character 
and  the  operation  had  not  already  been  tested  in  the  expe- 
rience of  our  fathers.  In  Carolina  the  disputes  of  a  thou- 
sand years  were  crowded  into  a  generation. 

Europe  suffered  from  obsolete  but  not  inoperative  laws ; 
no  statute  of  Carolina  was  to  bind  beyond  a  century :  Eu- 
rope suffered  from  the  multiplication  of  law-books  and  the 
perplexities  of  the  law  ;  in  Carolina,  not  a  commentary  might 
be  written  on  the  constitutions,  the  statutes,  or  the  common 
law :  Europe  suffered  from  the  furies  of  bigotry ;  Carolina 
promised  not  equal  rights,  but  toleration  to  "  Jews,  hea- 
thens, and  other  dissenters,"  to  "  men  of  any  religion."  In 
other  respects,  "  the  interests  of  the  proprietors,"  the  desire 
of  "a  government  most  agreeable  to  monarchy,"  and  the 
dread  of  "a  numerous  democracy,"  are  avowed  as  the 
motives  for  forming  the  fundamental  constitutions  of  Car- 
olina. 

The  proprietaries,  as  sovereigns,  constituted  a  close  corpo- 
ration of  eight ;  a  number  which  was  never  to  be  diminished 
or  increased.  The  dignity  was  hereditary :  in  default  of 
heirs,  the  survivors  elected  a  successor.  Thus  was  formed 
an  upper  house,  self-elected  and  immortal. 

For  purposes  of  settlement,  the  almost  boundless  terri- 
tory was  to  be  divided  into  counties,  each  containing  four 
hundred  and  eighty  thousand  acres.  The  creation  of  two 
orders  of  nobility  —  one  landgrave  or  earl,  and  two  caciques 
or  barons  for  each  county  —  preceded  the  distribution  of 
lands  into  five  equal  parts,  of  which  one  remained  the  inalien- 
able property  of  the  proprietaries,  and  another  formed  the 
inalienable  and  indivisible  estates  of  the  nobility.  The  re- 
maining three  fifths  were  reserved  for  what  was  called  the 
people ;  and  might  be  held  by  lords  of  manors  who  were 
not  hereditary  legislators,  but,  like  the  nobility,  might  exer 


496  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVII. 

cise  judicial  powers  in  their  baronial  courts.  The  number 
of  the  nobility  might  neither  be  increased  nor  diminished ; 
election  supplied  the  places  left  vacant  for  want  of  heirs ; 
for,  by  an  agrarian  principle,  estates  and  dignities  were  not 
allowed  to  accumulate. 

The  instinct  of  aristocracy  dreads  the  moral  power  of 
proprietary  cultivators  of  the  soil ;  their  perpetual  degrada- 
tion was  enacted.  The  leet-men,  or  tenants,  holding  ten 
acres  of  land  at  a  fixed  rent,  were  not  only  destitute  of 
political  franchises,  but  were  adscripts  to  the  soil ;  "  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  their  lord,  without  appeal ; "  and  it  was 
added,  "all  the  children  of  leet-men  shall  be  leet-men,  and 
so  to  all  generations." 

Grotius  had  defended  slavery  as  a  rightful  condition  ;  a 
few  years  later,  William  Penn  employed  African  bondmen  ; 
Locke  proposed,  without  compunction,  that  every  freeman 
of  Carolina  should  have  absolute  power  and  authority  over 
his  negro  slaves. 

By  the  side  of  the  seigniories,  baronies,  and  manors,  room 
was  left  for  freeholders  ;  but  no  elective  franchise  could  be 
conferred  on  a  freeholder  of  less  than  fifty  acres,  and  no 
eligibility  to  the  parliament  on  a  freehold  of  less  than  five 
hundred. 

All  executive  power,  and,  in  the  last  resort,  all  judiciary 
power,  rested  with  the  proprietaries  themselves.  The  seven 
subordinate  courts  had  each  a  proprietary  for  its  chief ;  and, 
of  the  forty-two  counsellors  of  whom  they  were  composed, 
twenty-eight  were  appointed  by  the  proprietaries  and  the 
nobility.  The  judiciary  was  placed  beyond  the  reach  of 
popular  influence.  To  one  aristocratic  court  was  intrusted 
the  superintendence  of  the  press ;  and,  as  if  not  only  men 
would  submit  their  minds,  but  women  their  tastes,  and  chil- 
dren their  pastimes,  to  a  tribunal,  another  court  had  cogni- 
zance of  "ceremonies  and  pedigrees,  of  fashions  and  sports." 
Of  the  fifty  who  composed  the  grand  council  of  Carolina, 
fourteen  only  represented  the  commons,  and  of  these  the 
tenure  of  office  was  for  life. 

The  constitutions  recognised  four  estates,  the  proprie- 
taries, the  landgraves,  the  caciques,  and  the  commons.  In 


1669.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  497 

the  parliament,  all  the  estates  assembled  in  one  chamber ; 
apart  from  the  proprietaries,  who  might  appear  by  deputies, 
the  commons  elected  four  members  for  every  three  of  the 
nobility ;  but  large  proprietors  were  alone  eligible.  An  aris- 
tocratic majority  might,  therefore,  always  be  relied  upon  ; 
but,  to  prevent  danger,  three  methods,  reproduced,  in  part, 
in  modern  monarchical  constitutions,  were  adopted ;  the 
proprietaries  reserved  to  themselves  a  negative  on  all  the 
proceedings  of  parliament;  no  subject  could  be  initiated, 
except  through  the  grand  council ;  and,  in  case  of  a  consti- 
tutional objection  to  a  law,  either  of  the  four  estates  might 
interpose  a  veto.  Popular  enfranchisement  was  made  an 
impossibility.  Executive,  judicial,  and  legislative  power 
was  each  beyond  the  control  of  the  people. 

A  few  singularities  were  in  harmony  with  the  great  outlines 
of  the  system.  In  trials  by  jury,  the  majority  decided,  — 
a  rule  fatal  to  the  oppressed ;  for,  where  moral  courage  is 
requisite  for  an  acquittal,  more  than  a  small  minority  cannot 
always  be  expected.  Another  clause,  which  declared  it  "  a 
base  and  vile  thing  to  plead  for  money  or  reward,"  could 
not  but  compel  the  less  educated  classes  to  establish  be- 
tween themselves  and  the  nobility  the  relation  of  clients 
and  patrons. 

Such  were  the  constitutions  devised  for  Carolina  by 
Shaftesbury  and  Locke,  by  the  statesman  who  was  the  type 
of  the  Revolution  of  1688,  and  the  sage  who  was  the  antag- 
onist of  Descartes  and  William  Penn.  Several  American 
writers  have  attempted  to  exonerate  Locke  from  a  share  in 
the  work  which  they  condemn  ;  but  it  harmonizes  with  the 
principles  of  his  philosophy  and  with  his  theories  on  govern- 
ment. To  his  late  old  age  he  preserved  with  care  the  evi- 
dence of  his  legislative  labors ;  and  his  admirers  esteemed 
him  the  superior  of  the  contemporary  Quaker  king,  the 
rival  of  "  the  ancient  philosophers,"  to  whom  the  world  had 
"erected  statues."  The  constitutions  were  signed 
on  the  twenty-first  of  July,  1669 ;  and,  five  days  later,  a  j^; 
commission  as  governor  was  issued  to  William  Sayle. 

In  a  second  draft  of  the  constitutions,  against  the  wishes 
of  Locke,  a  clause  was  interpolated,  declaring  that,  while 
VOL.  i.  82 


498  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVTL 

every  religion  should  be  tolerated,  the  church  of  England,  as 
the  only  true  and  orthodox  chui-ch,  was  to  be  the  national  relig- 
ion of  Carolina,  and  was  alone  to  receive  public  maintenance 
by  grants  from  the  colonial  parliament.  This  revised  copy 
of  "  the  model "  was  not  signed  till  March,  1670.  To  a  colony 
of  which  the  majority  were  likely  to  be  dissenters,  the 
change  was  vital ;  it  was  scarcely  noticed  in  England,  where 
the  model  became  the  theme  of  extravagant  applause.  "  It 
is  without  compare,"  wrote  Blome,  in  1672.  "  Empires," 
added  an  admirer  of  Shaftesbury,  "will  be  ambitious  of  sub- 
jection to  the  noble  government  which  deep  wisdom  has 
projected  for  Carolina;"  and  the  proprietaries  believed 
they  had  set  their  seals  to  "a  sacred  and  unalterable" 
instrument,  which  they  decreed  should  endure  "  for  ever." 

As  far  as  depended  upon  the  proprietaries,  the  govern- 
ment was  immediately  organized  with  Monk,  Duke  of  Al- 
bemarle,  as  palatine.  But  was  there  room  for  a  palatine  and 
landgraves,  for  barons  and  lords  of  manors,  for  an  admiralty 
court  and  a  court  of  heraldry,  among  the  scattered  cabins 
between  the  Chowan  and  the  ocean  ? 

Albemarle  had  been  increased  by  fresh  emigrants 

from  New  England,  and  by  a  colony  of  ship-builders 

from  the  Bermudas,  who  lived  contentedly  with 
1667.  Stevens  as  chief  magistrate,  under  a  very  wise  and 

simple  form  of  government.  A  council  of  twelve, 
six  named  by  the  proprietaries,  and  six  chosen  by  the  assem- 
bly; an  assembly,  composed  of  the  governor,  the  council, 
and  twelve  delegates  from  the  freeholders  of  the  incipient 
settlements,  —  formed  a  government  which  enjoyed  popular 
confidence.  No  interference  from  abroad  was  anticipated ; 
for  freedom  of  religion,  and  security  against  taxation,  except 

by  the  colonial  legislature,  were  conceded.  The  colo- 
M^\  nists  were  satisfied ;  the  more  so,  as  their  lands  were 

confirmed  to  them  on  their  own  terms. 

The  authentic  record  of  the  legislative  history  of 
1669.       North  Carolina  begins  with  the  autumn  of  1669,when 

the  legislators  of  Albemarle,  ignorant  of  the  scheme 
which  Locke  and  Shaftesbury  were  maturing,  framed  a  few 
laws  which,  however  open  to  objection,  were  suited  to  the 


1672.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  499 

character,  opinions,  and  manners  of  the  inhabitants,  and  which 
therefore  endured  long  after  the  designs  of  Locke  were 
abandoned.  New  settlements  invite  the  adventurer  and 
welcome  the  needy.  The  planters  of  Albemarle  gave  a 
five  years'  security  to  the  emigrant  debtor  against  any  cause 
of  action  arising  out  of  the  country.  Marriage  was  made 
a  civil  contract,  requiring  for  its  validity  nothing  more 
than  the  consent  of  parties  before  a  magistrate  with  wit- 
nesses. New  settlers  were  exempted  from  taxation  for  a 
year.  The  care  for  peace,  or  the  instinct  of  monopoly,  pro- 
hibited strangers  from  trading  with  the  neighboring  Indians. 
As  every  adventurer  who  joined  the  colony  received  a 
bounty  in  land,  frauds  were  checked  by  withholding  a  per- 
fect title,  till  the  emigrant  should  have  resided  two  years  in 
the  colony.  The  members  of  this  early  legislature  probably 
received  no  compensation ;  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  gov- 
ernor and  council,  a  fee  of  thirty  pounds  of  tobacco,  was 
exacted  in  every  lawsuit.  Such  was  the  simple  legislation 
of  men,  who,  being  destitute  of  fortune,  had  roamed  in  quest 
of  it.  The  laws  were  sufficient,  were  confirmed  by  the 
proprietaries,  were  re-enacted  in  1715,  and  were  valid  wo. 
in  North  Carolina  for  more  than  half  a  century. 

Hardly  had  these  laws  been  established,  when  the  new 
constitution  was  forwarded  to  Albemarle.  Its  pro- 
mulgation did  but  favor  anarchy  by  invalidating  the 
existing  system,  which  it  could  not  replace.  The 
proprietaries,  contrary  to  stipulations  with  the  colonists, 
superseded  the  existing  government ;  and  the  colonists  reso- 
lutely rejected  the  substitute. 

Far  different  was  the  welcome  with  which  the  people  of 
North  Carolina  met  the  first  messengers  of  religion. 
From  the  commencement  of   the   settlement,  there       1672. 
seems  not  to  have  been  a  minister  in  the  land ;  there 
was  no  public  worship  but  such  as  burst  from  the  hearts  of 
the  people  themselves,  when  natural  feeling  took  th«  form 
of  words.     But  man  is  by  nature  prone  to  religious  impres- 
sions; and  when  William   Edmundson   came  to  visit  his 
Quaker  brethren  among  the  groves  of  Albemarle,  "  he  met 
with  a  tender  people,"  delivered  his  doctrine  in  the  authority 


500  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVII. 

of  truth,"  and  made  converts  to  the  society  of  Friends.  A 
quarterly  meeting  of  discipline  was  established;  and  the 
society,  of  which  opposition  to  spiritual  authority  is  the 
badge,  was  the  first  to  organize  a  religious  community  in 
Carolina. 

In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  George  Fox,  the  father 
of  the  sect,  the  upright  man,  who  could  say  of  himself, 
"  What  I  am  in  words,  I  am  the  same  in  life,"  travelled 
across  "  the  great  bogs "  of  the  Dismal  Swamp,  commonly 
"  lying  abroad  a-nights  in  the  woods  by  a  fire,"  till  at  last  he 
reached  a  house  in  Carolina,  and  obtained  the  luxury  of  a 
mat  by  the  fireside.  He  was  made  welcome  to  the  refuge  of 
Quakers  and  fugitives  from  ecclesiastical  oppression.  The 
people  "  lived  lonely  in  the  woods,"  with  no  other  guardian 
to  their  solitary  houses  than  a  watch-dog.  There  have  been 
religious  comnninities  which,  binding  themselves  by  a  vow 
to  a  life  of  study  and  reflection,  have  planted  their  monas- 
teries in  the  recesses  of  the  desert,  where  they  might  best 
lift  up  their  hearts  to  contemplative  enjoyments.  Here 
was  a  colony  of  men  from  civilized  life,  scattered  among 
the  forests,  hermits  with  wives  and  children,  resting  on  the 
bosom  of  nature,  in  harmony  with  the  wilderness  of  their 
gentle  clime.  With  absolute  freedom  of  conscience,  reason 
and  good-will  to  man  were  the  simple  rule  of  their  con- 
duct. Such  was  the  people  to  whom  George  Fox  "  opened 
many  things  concerning  the  light  and  spirit  of  God  that  is 
in  every  one."  He  became  the  guest  of  the  governor  of  the 
province,  who,  with  his  wife,  "  received  him  lovingly."  The 
plantations  of  that  day  were  upon  the  bay,  and  along  the 
streams  that  flow  into  it ;  the  rivers  and  the  inlets  were  the 
highways  of  Carolina  ;  the  boat  and  the  lighter  birchen  skiff 
the  only  equipage ;  every  man  knew  how  to  handle  the  oar ; 
and  there  was  hardly  a  woman  but  could  paddle  a  canoe. 
When  Fox  continued  his  journey,  the  governor,  having  been 
admonished  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  truth  in  the  oracles  of 
nature,  accompanied  him  to  the  water's  edge  ;  and,  as  the  chief 
magistrate  of  North  Carolina  and  the  envoy  of  humanity 
travelled  together  on  foot  through  the  ancient  woods,  it  might 
indeed  have  seemed,  far  more  than  in  the  companionship  of 


1676.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  501 

Shaftesbury  and  Locke,  that  the  days  of  the  legislation  of 
philosophy  were  revived.  For  in  the  character  of  his  wisdom, 
in  the  method  of  its  acquisition  by  deep  feeling,  reflection,  and 
travel,  and  in  its  fruits,  George  Fox  far  more  nearly  resem- 
bled the  simplicity  of  the  ancient  sages,  the  peers  of  Thales 
and  Solon,  whom  common  fame  has  immortalized.  From  the 
house  of  the  governor,  the  traveller  continued  his  journey 
to  the  residence  of  "  Joseph  Scot,  one  of  the  representatives 
of  the  country,"  where  he  had  "  a  sound  and  precious  meet- 
ing "  with  the  people.  His  eloquence  reached  their  hearts ; 
for  he  did  but  assert  the  paramount  value  of  the  impulses 
and  feelings  which  had  guided  them  in  the  wilderness.  He 
"  had  a  sense  of  all  conditions ; "  for  "  how  else  could  he  have 
spoken  to  all  conditions  ?  "  At  another  meeting,  "  the  chief 
secretary  of  the  province,"  who  "  had  been  formerly  con- 
vinced," was  present ;  and  Fox  became  his  guest,  yet  not 
without  "  much  ado ; "  for,  as  the  boat  approached  his  plan- 
tation, it  grounded  in  the  shallow  channel,  and  could  not  be 
brought  to  shore.  But  a  little  skiff  shot  promptly  to  the 
traveller's  relief ;  the  wife  of  the  secretary  of  state  came 
herself  in  a  canoe,  and  brought  him  to  her  hospitable  home. 
As  he  turned  again  towards  Virginia,  he  could  say  that 
he  had  found  the  people  of  North  Carolina  "  generally  ten- 
der and  open  ;"  and  that  he  had  made  among  them  "  a  little 
entrance  for  truth." 

While  it  was  thus  practically  uncertain  what  was       1674. 
the  government  of  North  Carolina,  the  country  was 
left  without   a  governor  by   the   death   of   Stevens.     The 
assembly,  conforming  to  a  prudent  instruction  of  the 
proprietaries,  elected  a  successor;  and   Cartwright,    lil*£° 
their  speaker,  acted  for  two  years  at  the   head   of 
the  administration.     But  the  difficulty  of   introducing  the 
model  did  not  diminish.      Persons   into  whose   hands   the 
proprietaries  had  committed  the  government  interfered  with 
great  violence  and  injustice  to  prevent  the  progress  of  dis- 
covery and  colonization  to  the  southward ;  and  those  who 
had   planted   on   the   south   side   of  the  Chowan   and  the 
Roanoke  were  commanded  back,  to  their  great   prejudice 
and   inconvenience.     Moreover,  fears  prevailed   that  "  Sir 


502  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIL 

"William  Berkeley  was  become  the  sole  proprietary"  of 
that  part  of  Carolina.  Moved  "  by  these  apprehensions  and 
the  conjunction  of  the  times,"  the  North  Carolinians  them- 
selves "  ordered  and  settled  the  council  and  government," 
until  an  appeal  could  be  taken  to  the  proprietaries.  To 
them,  Thomas  Miller  carried  letters  from  the  self-consti- 
tuted government  of  Aibemarle  ;  and  Eastchurch,  the  new 
speaker  of  the  assembly,  followed  as  its  agent  to  explain  the 
public  grievances.  The  proprietaries,  after  some  of  them 
had  "  discoursed  with  "  Eastchurch  and  Miller,  wrote  to  the 
assembly :  "  They  have  fully  satisfied  us  that  the  fault  was 
not  in  you,  but  in  those  persons  into  whose  hands  we  com- 
mitted the  government."  They  gave  their  promise  "not 
to  part  with  the  county  of  Aibemarle  to  any  person,  but  to 
maintain  the  province  of  Carolina  entire  as  it  was,  that  they 
might  preserve  the  inhabitants  in  English  rights  and  liberties." 
Instead  of  insisting  on  the  introduction  of  the  grand  model, 
they  restored  the  simple  government  which  had  existed  in 
the  beginning  of  the  settlement. 

For  governor  of  Aibemarle,  they  named  Eastchurch 
himself,  "  because,"  they  said,  "  he  seems  to  us  a  very  dis- 
creet and  worthy  man,  and  very  much  concerned  for  your 
prosperity  and  welfare,  and,  by  the  opportunity  of  his  being 
here,  is  well  instructed  in  our  desires."  For  the  grand 
council  they  named  their  own  deputies,  and  invited  the 
assembly  to  choose  as  many  more.  While  they  praised  the 
good  disposition  of  the  North  Carolinians  to  administer  "  fair 
iustice  among  themselves,"  they  added :  "  We  utterly  dis- 
like trying  or  condemning  any  person,  either  in  criminal 
or  civil  causes,  without  a  jury ;  and  evidence  clandestinely 
taken  can  be  of  no  validity  otherwise  than  to  cause  the  crim- 
inal person  to  be  secured,  where  the  crime  is  of  a  high 
nature."  They  desired  to  connect  their  own  interests  with 
those  of  the  colony,  and  were  willing  to  approve  any 
measures  that  the  assembly  might  propose  for  extending 
colonization  on  the  Pamlico  and  the  Neuse,  and  opening 
connection  by  land  with  plantations  in  South  Carolina. 

They  attempted  to  restrain  the  scattered  manner  of  life 
of  the  colonists.  "  Without  towns,"  they  wrote,  "  you  will 


1677.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  503 

not  long  continue  civilized,  or  even  be  considerable  or  se- 
cure." Miller,  who  had  been  the  bearer  of  their  letters, 
was  appointed  secretary  of  the  province;  while  the  com- 
plaints which  he  had  made  were  referred  to  the  council  and 
assembly  in  the  place.  As  to  the  acts  of  navigation,  the 
proprietaries  never  questioned  their  validity ;  and  Miller 
received  from  the  crown  a  commission  as  collector  of  the 
customs. 

The  new  officers  embarked  for  Carolina  by  way  of  the 
West   Indies,  where   Eastchurch   remained   for   a  season ; 
while  Miller  proceeded  to  the  province,  in  which  he 
was  to  hold  the  triple  office  of  president  or  governor, 
secretary,  and  collector. 

The  government  had  for  about  a  year  been  left  in  what 
royalists  called  "  ill  order  and  worse  hands ; "  that  is,  it  had 
been  a  government  of  the  people  themselves.  The  suppres- 
sion of  a  fierce  insurrection  in  Virginia  had  been  followed 
by  the  vindictive  fury  of  ruthless  punishments ;  and  "  run- 
aways, rogues,  and  rebels,"  that  is  to  say,  fugitives  from 
arbitrary  tribunals,  non-conformists,  and  friends  to  liberty, 
"fled  daily  to  Carolina,  as  their  common  subterfuge  and 
lurking  place."  Did  letters  from  Virginia  demand  the 
surrender  of  leaders  in  the  rebellion,  Carolina  refused  to 
betray  the  fugitives. 

The  presence  of  such  emigrants  made  oppression  more 
difficult  than  ever ;  but  here,  as  throughout  the  colonies,  the 
navigation  acts  were  the  cause  for  greater  restlessness  and 
more  permanent  discontent.  And  never  did  national  avarice 
exhibit  itself  more  meanly  than  in  the  relations  of  English 
legislation  to  North  Carolina.  The  whole  district  hanlly 
contained  four  thousand  inhabitants  ;  a  few  fat  cattle,  a  little 
maize,  and  eight  hundred  hogsheads  of  tobacco,  formed  all 
their  exports  ;  their  humble  commerce  had  attracted  none  but 
small  craft  from  New  England ;  and  the  mariners  of  Bos- 
ton, guiding  their  vessels  through  the  narrow  entrances  of 
the  bay,  brought  to  the  doors  of  the  scattered  planters  the 
few  foreign  articles  which  the  exchange  of  their  produce 
could  purchase.  And  yet  this  inconsiderable  traffic,  so 
little  alluring,  but  so  convenient  to  the  colonists,  was  envied 


504  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIL 

by  the  English  merchant ;  the  law  of  1672  was  to  be  enforced  ; 
the  traders  of  Boston  were  to  be  crowded  from  the  market 
by  an  unreasonable  duty;  and  the  planters  to  send  their 
harvests  to  England  as  they  could. 

How  unwelcome,  then,  must  have  been  the  presence  of 
Miller,  who  levied  the  hateftil  tribute  of  a  penny  on  every 
pound  of  tobacco  exported  to  New  England  !  A  jealousy 
of  the  northern  colonies  was  also  fostered  ;  "they  cannot," 
it  was  urged,  "  be  friends  to  the  prosperity  of  Carolina,  which 
will  certainly  in  time  render  them  inconsiderable."  But 
the  antiquated  prejudices  of  Europe  were  not  to  gain  en- 
trance beyond  the  Atlantic,  and  never  did  one  American 
colony  repine  at  the  increase  of  another.  The  traffic  with 
Boston  continued,  though  burdened  with  a  tax  which  pro- 
duced an  annual  revenue  of  twelve  thousand  dollars,  an  enor- 
mous burden  for  the  petty  commerce  and  the  few  inhabitants 
of  that  day.  Nor  was  this  all :  the  traders  were  exposed  to 
so  much  violence  and  harshness  from  Miller,  that  they  were 
with  difficulty  persuaded  not  to  abandon  the  country. 

The  planters  of  Albemarle  were  men  who  had  been  led  to 
the  choice  of  their  residence  from  a  hatred  of  restraint,  and 
had  lost  themselves  among  the  woods  in  search  of  indepen- 
dence. They  were  restless  and  turbulent  in  their  imperfect 
submission  to  a  government  imposed  on  them  from  abroad  ; 
the  administration  of  the  colony  was  firm,  humane,  and 
tranquil,  when  they  were  left  to  take  care  of  themselves. 
Any  government  but  one  of  their  own  institution  was 
hard  to  be  borne. 

The  attempt  at  enforcing  the  navigation  acts  hastened 
an  insurrection,  which  was  fostered  by  the  refugees  from 
Virginia  and  the  New  England  men  ;  and  which,  having 
been  the  effect  of  deliberate  contrivance,  was  justified  by 
the  first  American  manifesto.  Excessive  taxation,  an  abridg- 
ment of  political  liberty  by  the  change  in  the  form  of  govern- 
ment, with  the  "  denial  of  a  free  election  of  an  assembly," 
and  the  unwise  interruption  of  the  natural  channels  of 
commerce,  were  the  threefold  grievances  of  the  colony. 
Its  leader  in  the  insurrection  was  John  Culpepper,  one  of 
those  "  very  ill  men  "  who  loved  popular  liberty,  and  whom 


1679.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  505 

the  royalists  of  that  day  denounced  as.  having  merited 
"  hanging,  for  endeavoring  to  set  the  poor  people  to  plunder 
the  rich."  One  of  the  counsellors  joined  in  the  rebellion  ; 
the  rest,  with  Miller,  were  imprisoned  ;  "  that  thereby  the 
country  may  have  a  free  parliament,  and  may  send  home 
their  grievances."  Having  deposed  and  imprisoned  the 
president  and  the  deputies  of  the  proprietaries,  and  set  at 
nought  the  acts  of  parliament,  the  people  recovered  from 
anarchy,  tranquilly  organized  a  government,  and  established 
courts  of  justice.  The  insurrection  was  a  deliberate  rising 
of  the  people  against  the  pretensions  of  the  proprietaries 
and  the  laws  of  navigation.  Eastchurch  arrived  in  Virginia ; 
but  his  commission  and  authority  were  derided ;  and  he 
himself  was  kept  out  by  force  of  arms ;  while  the  insurgents, 
among  whom  was  George  Durant,  the  oldest  land- 
holder in  Albemarle,  having  completed  their  insti-  icra. 
tutions,  sent  Culpepper  and  another  to  England  to 
negotiate  a  compromise.  It  proves  in  Culpepper  a  con- 
viction of  his  own  rectitude  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
accept  the  trust. 

But  the  late  president  and  his  fellow-sufferers,  having 
escaped  from  confinement  in  Carolina,  appeared  in  Eng- 
land with  adverse  complaints.  To  a  struggle  between  the 
planters  and  the  proprietaries,  the  English  public  would 
have  been  indifferent ;  but  Miller  presented  himself  as  the 
champion  of  the  navigation  acts,  and  enlisted  in  his  favor 
the  jealous  anger  of  the  mercantile  cities.  Culpepper,  just 
as  he  was  embarking  for  America,  was  taken  into  custody, 
and  his  interference  with  the  collecting  of  duties,  which  he 
was  charged  with  embezzling,  and  which  there  is  no  reason 
to  believe  he  had  applied  to  othfir  than  public  purposes, 
stimulated  a  prosecution ;  while  his  opposition  to  the  pro- 
prietaries was  held  to  justify  an  indictment  for  an  act  of 
high  treason,  committed  without  the  realm. 

A  statute  of  Henry  VIII.  was  the  authority  for  arraigning 
a  colonist  before  an  English  jury,  an  act  of  tyranny  ag.-iin^t 
which  Culpepper  vainly  protested,  claiming  "  to  be  tried  in 
Carolina,  where  the  offence  was  committed."  "Let  no 
favor  be  shown  him,"  said  Lauderdale  and  the  lords  of 


506  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIL 

June.  the  plantations.  But,  when  he  was  brought  up  for 
1680.  trial,  Shaftesbury,  who  at  that  time  was  in  the 
zenith  of  popularity,  courted  every  form  of  popular  influ- 
ence, and  penetrated  the  injustice  of  the  accusation,  ap- 
peared in  his  defence  and  procured  his  acquittal.  The 
insurrection  in  Carolina  was  excused  by  the  verdict  of  an 
English  jury. 

The  proprietaries  had  for  the  motive  of  their  conduct  the 
love  of  gain ;  a  violent  government  would  have  been  too 
costly  and  unproductive  an  enterprise ;  avarice,  therefore, 

compelled  moderation ;  and  a  compromise  was  offered. 
J^o'       But  a  compromise  was  the  confession  of  weakness. 

It  was  a  natural  expedient  to  send  one  of  the  pro- 
prietaries themselves  to  look  after  the  interests  of  the 
company ;  and  Seth  Sothel,  who  had  purchased  the  rights 
of  Lord  Clarendon,  was  selected  for  the  purpose.  But 
Sothel,  on  his  voyage,  was  taken  captive  by  the  Algerines. 
1679  to  Meantime,  the  temporary  government  of  Carolina, 
1682.  under  Harvey,  Jenkins,  and  Wilkinson,  had  been 

abandoned,  or  intrusted  by  the  proprietaries  to  the 

1680.  friends  of  the  insurgents.     I  find  the  name  of  Robert 
Holden,  Culpepper's  associate  and   colleague,  as  re- 
ceiver-general ;  while  "  the  traitor,  George  Durant,"  quietly 
discharged  the  duty  of  a  judge.     "  Settle  order  amongst 

yourselves,"  wrote  the  proprietaries ;  and  order  had 

1681.  already  been  settled.     Would  the  disciples  of  Fox 
subscribe   to   the    authority   of    the    proprietaries  ? 

Ju6iy°3i.  "  Yes,"  they  replied,  "  with  heart  and  hand,  to  the 
best  of  our  capacities  and  understandings,  so  far  as 

is  consonant  with  God's  glory  and  the  advancement  of  his 
blessed  truth ; "   and  the  restricted  promise  was  ac- 

1681.       cepted.     An  act  of  amnesty,  on  easy  conditions,  was 
adopted;  but  the  feeling  of  personal  independence, 

and  the   nature  of  life  in  the  New  World,  were  firmer 

guarantees  of  security  than  all  promises  of  pardon. 

It  is  said  that  the  popular  administration  did  not  wholly 

refrain  from  persecuting  the  few  royalists  in  the  province  ; 

but,  if  complaints  were  made,  no  act  of  injustice  appears 

to  have  required  the  rebuke  of  the  proprietaries   or  the 


1688.  LEGISLATION  FOR  CAROLINA.  507 

censure  of  the  sovereign.     Sothel,  on  reaching  the       less 
colony,  found   tranquillity  established.     His  arrival 
changed  the  scene. 

Sothel  was  of  the  same  class  of  governors  with  Cranfield 
of  New  Hampshire.  He  was  one  of  the  eight  proprietaries^ 
and  had  accepted  the  government  in  the  hope  of  acquiring 
a  fortune.  Many  colonial  governors  displayed  rapacity  and 
extortion  towards  the  people  ;  Sothel  cheated  his  as- 
sociates, as  well  as  plundered  the  colonists.  To  the  1^8to 
latter  he  could  not  be  acceptable,  for  it  was  his 
duty  to  establish  the  constitutions  and  enforce  the  naviga- 
tion acts.  To  introduce  the  constitutions  was  impossible, 
unless  he  could  transform  a  log  cabin  into  a  baronial  castle, 
a  negro  slave  into  a  herd  of  leet-men.  And  how  could  one 
man,  without  soldiers,  and  without  a  vessel  of  war,  enforce 
the  navigation  acts  ?  Having  neither  the  views  nor  the 
qualities  of  a  statesman,  Sothel  had  no  higher  purpose  than 
to  satiate  his  sordid  passions  ;  and,  like  so  many  others, 
employed  his  power  to  gratify  his  covetousness,  by  exacting 
unjust  fees  or  by  engrossing  traffic  with  the  Indians.  His 
object  was  money  ;  he  valued  his  office  as  the  means  of 
gaining  it.  That  the  charges  against  him  are  vague, 
extending  in  no  case  to  loss  of  life  or  to  any  specific  act  of 
cruelty,  seems  to  prove  that  his  avarice  was  not  singularly 
exorbitant.  Had  he  done  much  more  than  practise  the 
usual  arts  of  exaction  with  which  nearly  every  royal  prov- 
ince was  becoming  familiar?  But  the  people  of  North 
Carolina,  already  experienced  in  rebellion,  having 
borne  with  him  about  five  years,  at  length  deposed  1688. 
him  without  bloodshed,  and  appealed  once  more  to 
the  proprietaries.  It  is  conclusive  proof  that  Sothel  had 
committed  no  acts  of  wanton  wickedness,  that  he  preferred 
a  request  to  submit  his  case  to  an  assembly ;  fearing  the 
colonists,  whom  he  had  pillaged,  less  than  the  men  whom 
he  had  betrayed.  His  request  was  granted  ;  and  the  colony 
condemned  him  to  a  twelve  months'  exile  and  a  perpetual 
incapacity  for  the  government. 

Here  was  a  double  grief  to  the  proprietaries ;  the  rapac- 
ity of  Sothel  was  a  breach  of  trust,  the  judgment  of  the 


508  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIL 

assembly  an  ominous  usurpation.  The  planters  of  North 
Carolina  recovered  tranquillity  so  soon  as  they  escaped  the 
misrule  from  abroad ;  and,  sure  of  amnesty,  esteemed  them- 
selves the  happiest  people  on  earth.  They  loved  the  pure 
air  and  clear  skies  of  their  "  summer  land."  Careless  of 
religious  sects,  or  colleges,  or  lawyers,  or  absolute  laws,  they 
possessed  liberty  of  conscience  and  personal  independence, 
freedom  of  the  forest  and  of  the  river.  From  almost  every 
homestead  they  enjoyed  a  noble  prospect  of  spacious  rivers, 
of  pleasant  meadows,  enamelled  with  flowers  ;  of  primeval 
forests,  wrapped  in  jasmines  and  honeysuckles.  For  them 
the  wild  bee  stored  its  honey  in  hollow  trees ;  for  them  un- 
numbered swine  fattened  on  the  fruits  of  the  forest ;  for 
them  cattle  multiplied  on  the  pleasant  savannas.  What 
though  Europe  was  rocked  to  its  centre  by  commotions? 
What  though  England  was  changing  its  constitution  ? 
Should  the  planter  of  Albemarle  trouble  himself  for  Hol- 
land or  France  ?  for  James  II.  or  William  of  Orange  ?  for  a 
popish  party  or  a  high  church  party  ?  Almost  all  the  Ameri- 
can colonies  were  chiefly  planted  by  those  to  whom  the  uni- 
formities of  European  life  were  intolerable  ;  North  Carolina 
was  planted  by  men  to  whom  the  restraints  of  other  colonies 
were  too  severe.  They  were  scattered  in  lonely  granges. 
There  was  neither  city  nor  township  ;  there  was  hardly  even 
a  hamlet,  or  one  house  within  sight  of  another;  nor  were 
there  roads,  except  as  the  paths  from  house  to  house  were 
distinguished  by  notches  in  the  trees.  But  the  settlers 
were  gentle  in  their  tempers,  enemies  to  violence  and  blood- 
shed. Not  all  their  successive  revolutions  had  kindled  in 
them  vindictive  passions ;  freedom  was  enjoyed  without 
anxiety  as  without  guarantees ;  the  charities  of  life  were 
scattered  at  their  feet ;  and  the  spirit  of  humanity  main- 
tained its  influence  in  the  paradise  of  Quakers. 


1670.     FIRST  SETTLEMENTS  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA.       509 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

FIRST    SETTLEMENTS   IN    SOUTH   CAROLINA. 

Or  South  Carolina,  the  first  settlement  was  founded  by 
the  proprietaries,  and  resembled  in  its  origin  an  invest- 
ment of  capital  by  a  company  of  land-jobbers,  who  fur- 
nished the  emigrants  with  the  means  of  embarking  for 
America,  established  on  its  shores  their  own  commercial 
agent,  and  undertook  for  themselves  the  management  of 
all  commercial  transactions.  But  success  attended  neither 
the  government  which  they  instituted,  nor  the  industry 
which  they  fostered.  Self-government,  in  private  labors 
and  in  public  administration,  alone  possesses  the  elasticity 
which  can  have  due  reference  to  the  materials  of  society, 
and  adapt  itself  to  every  emergency  and  condition.  South 
Carolina  was  a  scene  of  turbulence  till  the  constitutions 
were  abandoned ;  and  industry  was  unproductive  till  the 
colonists  despised  patronage  and  relied  on  themselves. 

In  January,  1670,  more  than  a  month  before  the  lero. 
revised  model  was  signed,  a  considerable  number  of  Jan- 
emigrants  set  sail  for  Carolina,  which,  both  from  climate 
and  soil,  was  celebrated  in  advance  as  "  the  beauty  and  envy 
of  North  America."  They  were  conducted  by  Joseph 
West,  as  commercial  agent  for  the  proprietaries;  and  by 
William  Sayle,  who  was  probably  a  Presbyterian,  and, 
having  more  than  twenty  years  before  made  himself  known 
as  leader  in  an  attempt  to  plant  the  isles  of  the  Gulf  of 
Florida,  was  now  constituted  a  proprietary  governor,  with 
jurisdiction  extending  as  far  north  as  Cape  Carteret,  as  far 
south  as  the  Spaniards  would  tolerate.  Having  touched  at 
Ireland  and  Barbados,  the  ships  which  bore  the  company 
entered  the  well-known  waters  where  the  fleet  of  Kibault 
had  anchored,  and  examined  the  site  where  the  Huguenots 
had  engraved  the  lilies  of  France  and  erected  the  fortiv>s 


510  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIII. 

of  Carolina.  But  the  vicinity  of  Beaufort  was  not  destined 
to  harbor  the  first  colony  of  the  English ;  the  emigrants, 
after  short  delay,  sailed  into  Ashley  River,  and  on  "  the 
first  high  land,"  in  a  spot  that  seemed  "convenient  for  till- 
age and  pasturing,"  the  three  ship-loads  of  emigrants,  who 
as  yet  formed  the  whole  people  of  South  Carolina,  selected 
their  resting-place  and  began  their  first  town.  Of  this 
town,  every  log-house  has  vanished,  ,and  its  site  is  absorbed 
in  a  plantation.  Yet,  few  as  were  the  settlers,  no  immediate 
danger  was  apprehended  from  the  natives ;  epidemic  sick- 
ness and  sanguinary  wars  had  swept  away  the  ancient  tribes, 
and  left  the  neighboring  coasts  almost  a  desert. 

The  emigrants  had  hardly  landed,  before  they  instituted 
a  government  on  the  basis  of  liberty.  A  copy  of  the  orig- 
inal fundamental  constitutions,  which  had  no  article  estab- 
lishing the  church  of  England,  had  been  furnished  them, 
duly  signed  and  sealed ;  but  it  was  indeed  impossible  "  to 
execute  the  grand  model."  As  easily  might  trees  have  been 
turned  into  cathedrals,  or  castles,  at  a  word,  erected  in 
those  solitary  groves  on  the  savannas,  that  resembled  the 
parks  in  England.  A  parliamentary  convention  was  held  ; 
five  members  of  the  grand  council  were  elected  to  act  with 
five  whom  the  proprietaries  had  appointed  ;  the  whole  body 
possessed  a  veto  on  the  executive,  and,  with  the  governor 
and  twenty  delegates,  who  were  now  elected  by  the  people, 
constituted  the  legislature  of  the  province.  Representative 
government  struck  root  from  the  beginning,  and  continued 
to  be  cherished.  John  Locke,  as  well  as  Sir  John  Yeamans 

and  James  Carteret,  was  created  a  landgrave.  In 
i67i,  1671,  the  revised  copy  of  the  model  was  sent  over, 

with  a  set  of  rules  and  instructions.  But  Shaftes- 
bury  misjudged ;  there  was  already  a  people  in  South  Caro- 
lina ;  and,  if  the  aristocratic  council  acknowledged  the 
validity  of  the  constitutions,  they  were  firmly  resisted  by 
the  popular  representatives.  The  commonwealth,  from  its 
organization,  was  distracted  by  a  political  feud  between  the 
proprietaries  and  the  people  ;  the  friends  of  the  high  church, 
always  a  minority,  favored  the  former,  while  all  classes  of 
dissenters  united  with  the  latter. 


1672.      FIRST   SETTLEMENTS   IN   SOUTH  CAROLINA.      511 

Every  early  settlement  is  necessarily  attended  with  great 
privations ;  the  planting  of  Carolina  did  not  encounter  un- 
usual hardships.  The  colony  was  at  one  moment  so  dis- 
heartened as  to  meditate  desertion  ;  but  the  timely 
arrival  of  supplies  scattered  the  clouds  of  despon-  mt. 
dency.  The  Indians,  though  few,  were  unfriendly ; 
and  it  was  with  arms  at  hand  that  the  emigrants  gathered 
oysters,  or  swept  the  rivers,  or  toiled  at  building.  The 
labors  of  agriculture  in  the  sultry  clime  were  appalling  to 
Englishmen  ;  neither  did  the  culture  of  European  grains 
promise  to  be  successful ;  but  extreme  distress  did  not 
ensue  ;  and  the  proprietaries  showed  no  intention  of  aban- 
doning their  plantation. 

The  first  site  for  a  town  had  been  chosen  without  regard 
to  commerce.     The  point  between  the  two  rivers,  to  which 
the  names  of  Shaftesbury  were  given,  soon  attracted  atten- 
tion ;  those  who  had  purchased  grants  there,  desirous 
of  obtaining  neighbors,  willingly  offered  to  surrender       16T2. 
one  half  of  their  land  as  "  commons  of  pasture."     The 
offer  was  in  part  refused  ;  but  the  neck  of  land  then       leso. 
called  Oyster  Point,  soon  to  become  a  village  named 
from  the   reigning  king,  and,  after   more  than  a  century, 
incorporated  as  the  city  of  Charleston,  immediately  gained 
a  few  inhabitants ;   and  on  the  spot  where  opulence  now 
crowds  the  wharfs  of  the   most  prosperous  mart   on  our 
southern  seaboard,  among  ancient  groves  that  swept 
down  to  the  rivers'  banks,  and  were  covered  in  spring       1672. 
with  the  yellow  jasmine,  it  began  with  the  cabins  of 
graziers.     Long  afterwards,  the  splendid  vegetation  which 
environs  Charleston,   especially  the  pine,  and   cedar,  and 
cypress  trees  along  the  broad  road  which  is  now  Meeting 
Street,   delighted  the   observer   by  its   perpetual  verdure. 
The  settlement,  though  for  some  years  it  struggled  against 
an  unhealthy  climate,  steadily  increased;  and  to  its  influ- 
ence is  in  some  degree  to  be  attributed  the  love  of  letters, 
the  desire  of  institutions  for  education,  and  the    peculiar 
character  for  which    South    Carolina  was   afterwards   dis- 
tinguished. 

The  institutions  of  Carolina  were  shaped  by  the  chara<-t«T 


512  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIII. 

of  the  emigration  that  began  to  throng  to  her  soil. 
1671.  The  proprietaries  continued  to  send  emigrants,  who 

were  tempted  by  the  offer  of  land  at  an  easy  quit-rent. 
One  hundred  and  fifty  acres  were  granted  for  "  every  able 
man-servant."  That  this  promise  might  not  be  confined  to 

white  men,  Ashley,  Carteret,  and  Colleton  wrote  in 
No6v.°28.  November,  1670 :  "  We  grant  one  hundred  and  fifty 

acres  of  land  for  every  able  man-servant ;  in  that  we 

mean  negroes  as  well  as  Christians."  From  Barbados 
1671.  arrived  Sir  John  Yeamans  in  1671,  with  African  slaves. 

The  institution  of  negro  slavery  is  coeval  with  the 
first  plantations  on  Ashley  River.  Of  the  original  thirteen 
states,  South  Carolina  alone  was  from  its  cradle  essentially 
a  planting  state  with  slave  labor.  In  Maryland,  in  Virginia, 
the  custom  of  employing  indented  servants  long  prevailed  ; 
and  the  class  of  white  laborers  was  always  numerous.  It 
was  from  the  first  observed  that  the  climate  of  South  Car- 
olina was  more  congenial  to  the  African  than  that  "  of  the 
more  northern  colonies  ;  "  and  it  was  the  great  object  of  the 
emigrant  "  to  buy  negro  slaves,  without  which,"  adds  Wil- 
son, "  a  planter  can  never  do  any  great  matter."  Every  one 
of  the  colonies  received  slaves  from  Africa  within  its  bor- 
ders ;  the  Dutch  merchants,  who  engaged  in  planting  New 
York,  were  largely  interested  in  the  slave-trade,  and  cove- 
nanted to  furnish  emigrants  to  that  colony  with  all  the 
negroes  they  might  desire.  In  South  Carolina,  the  labor  of 
felling  the  forests,  of  tilling  the  soil,  was  avoided  by  the 
white  man  ;  climate  favored  the  purposes  of  commercial 
avarice ;  and  the  negro  race  was  multiplied  so  rapidly  by 
importations  that,  in  a  few  years,  we  are  told,  the  blacks 
were  to  the  whites  in  the  proportion  of  tAventy-two  to 
twelve,  —  a  proportion  that  had  no  parallel  north  of  the 
West  Indies. 

The  changes  that  were  taking  place  on  the  banks 

of  the  Hudson  had  excited  discontent ;  the  rumor  of 
wealth  to  be  derived  from  the  fertility  of  the  south  cher- 
ished the  desire  of  emigration  ;  and,  almost  within  a  year 
from  the  arrival  of  the  first  fleet  in  Ashley  River,  two  ships 
came  with  Dutch  emigrants  from  New  York,  and  were  fol- 
lowed by  others  of  their  countrymen  from  Holland. 


1683.      FIRST   SETTLEMENTS   IN   SOUTH  CAROLINA.       513 

In  April,  1672,  all  previous  parliaments  and  parlia-  1672. 
mentary  conventions  were  dissolved ;  for  the  colo-  Apr"- 
nists,  now  rapidly  increasing,  demanded  "  a  new  parliament." 
Such  was  the  government  which  South  Carolina  instituted 
for  herself;  it  did  not  deem  it  possible  to  conform  more 
closely  to  the  constitutions,  though  the  proprietaries  in- 
dulged the  vision  of  realizing  their  introduction. 

Imagination  already  regarded  Carolina  as  the  chosen  spot 
for  the  culture  of  the  olive ;  and,  in  the  region  where  flow- 
ers bloom  every  month  in  the  year,  forests  of  orange-trees 
were  to  supplant  the  groves  of  cedar ;  silkworms  to  be  fed 
from  plantations  of  mulberries ;  and  choicest  wines  to 
be  ripened  under  the  genial  influences  of  a  nearly 
tropical  sun.  For  this  end,  Charles  II.,  with  an  al- 
most solitary  instance  of  munificence  towards  a  colony, 
provided  at  his  own  expense  two  small  vessels,  to  transport 
to  Carolina  a  few  foreign  Protestants,  who  might  there 
domesticate  the  productions  of  the  south  of  Europe. 

From  England  emigrations  were  considerable.   The    leroto 
character  of  the  proprietaries  was  a  sufficient  invita-     1688- 
tion  to  impoverished  members  of  the  church  of  Eng- 
land.    Even  Shaftesbury,  when  he  was  committed  to      j^l; 
the  Tower,  desired  leave  to  withdraw  to  Carolina. 

Nor  did  churchmen  alone  emigrate.  The  promise  of 
equal  immunities  attracted  many  dissenters  to  the  glowing 
clime  of  Carolina,  carrying  with  them  intelligence,  industry, 
and  sobriety.  A  contemporary  historian  commemo- 
rates with  singular  praise  the  company  of  dissenters  1683. 
from  Somersetshire,  who  were  conducted  to  Charles- 
ton by  Joseph  Blake,  brother  to  the  gallant  admiral  so 
celebrated  for  naval  genius  and  love  of  country.  Blake 
was  already  advanced  in  life  ;  but  he  could  not  endure 
present  oppression,  and  feared  still  greater  evils  from  a 
]><>]>ish  successor  ;  and  he  devoted  to  the  advancement  of 
emigration  all  the  fortune  which  he  had  inherited  as  the 
fruits  of  his  brother's  victories.  Thus  the  wealth  of  Xr\v 
Spain  assisted  to  people  Carolina. 

A  colony  of  Scotch-Irish,  lured  by  the  fame  of  the  fer- 
vor,, i.  33 


514  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIII. 

tility  of  the  south,  were  received  with  a  hearty  welcome. 

The  condition  of  Scotland  compelled  its  inhabitants  to  seek 

peace   by   abandoning   their   native   country.      Just 

1683.  after  the  death  of  Shaftesbury,  a  scheme,  which  had 
been  concei'ted  during  the  tyranny  of  Laudcrdale, 

was  revived.  Thirty-six  noblemen  and  gentlemen  had  en- 
tered into  an  association  for  planting  a  colony  in  the  New 
World  ;  their  agents  had  contracted  with  the  patentees  of 
South  Carolina  for  a  large  district  of  land,  where  Scottish 
exiles  for  religion  might  enjoy  freedom  of  faith  and  a  gov- 
ernment of  their  own.  Yet  the  design  was  never  completely 
executed.  A  gleam  of  hope  of  a  successful  revolution  in 
England  led  to  a  conspiracy  for  the  elevation  of  Monmouth. 
The  conspiracy  was  matured  in  London,  under  pretence  of 
favoring  emigration  to  America;  its  ill  success  involved  its 
authors  in  danger,  and  brought  Russell  and  Sydney  to  the 
scaffold.  It  was  therefore  with  but  a  small  colony  that 
the  Presbyterian  Lord  Cardross,  many  of  whose 

1684.  friends   had   suffered   imprisonment,   the   rack,   and 
death  itself,  and  who  had  himself  been  persecuted 

under  Lauderdale,  set  sail  for  Carolina.  But  even  there 
the  ten  families  of  outcasts  found  no  peace.  They  planted 
themselves  at  Port  Royal ;  the  colony  of  Ashley  River  ex- 
ercised over  them  a  jurisdiction  to  which  they  reluctantly 
submitted  ;  Cardross  returned  to  Europe,  where  he  rendered 
service  in  the  approaching  revolution  ;  and  the  Spaniards, 
taking  umbrage  at  a  plantation  established  on  ground  which 

they  claimed  as  a  dependency  of  St.  Augustine,  in- 
1686.  vaded  the  frontier  settlement,  and  laid  it  entirely 

waste.  Of  the  unhappy  emigrants,  some  found  their 
way  back  to  Scotland  ;  some  mingled  with  the  earlier  plant- 
ers of  Carolina. 

More  than  a  hundred  years  had  elapsed  since  Coligny, 
with  the  sanction  of  the  French  monarch,  selected  the 
southern  regions  of  the  United  States  as  the  residence  of 
Huguenots.  The  realization  of  that  design,  in  defiance  of 
the  Bourbons,  is  the  most  remarkable  incident  in  the  early 
history  of  South  Carolina,  and  was  the  result  of  a  persecu- 
tion which  not  only  gave  a  great  addition  to  the  intelligence 


1686.      FIRST   SETTLEMENTS   IN   SOUTH  CAROLINA.       515 

and  moral  worth  of  the  American  colonies,  but,  for  Europe, 
hastened  the  revolution  in  the  institutions  of  the  age. 

John  Calvin,  by  birth  a  Frenchman,  was  to  France  the 
apostle  of  the  Reformation ;  but  his  faith  had  been  feared 
as  the  creed  of  republicanism ;  his  party  had  been  pursued 
as  the  sect  of  rebellion ;  and  it  was  only  by  force  of  arms 
that  the  Huguenots  had  obtained  a  conditional  toleration. 
Even  the  edict  of  Nantes  placed  their  security  not  on  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  permanent  principle  of  legislative 
justice,  but  on  a  compromise  between  contending  parties. 
It  was  but  a  confirmation  of  privileges  which  had  been  ex- 
torted from  the  predecessors  of  Henry  IV.  And  yet  it  was 
the  harbinger  of  religious  peace;  so  long  as  the  edict  of 
Nantes  was  honestly  respected,  the  Huguenots  of  Languedoc 
were  as  tranquil  as  the  Lutherans  of  Alsace.  But  their 
tranquillity  invited  from  their  enemies  a  renewal  of  attacks ; 
no  longer  a  powerful  faction,  they  were  oppressed  with 
rigor;  having  ceased  to  be  feared,  they  were  exposed  to 
persecution. 

When  Louis  XIV.  approached  the  borders  of  age,  he  was 
troubled  by  remorse  ;  the  weakness  of  superstition  succeeded 
that  of  indulgence ;  and  the  flattery  of  bigots,  artfully  em- 
ployed for  their  own  selfish  purposes,  led  the  monarch  to 
seek,  in  making  proselytes  to  the  church,  a  new  method  of 
gaining  glory,  and  an  atonement  for  the  voluptuous  profli- 
gacy of  his  life.  Not  naturally  cruel,  he  was  an  easy  dupe 
of  those  in  whom  he  most  confided,  —  of  priests,  and  of  a 
woman.  The  daughter  of  an  adventurer,  —  for  nearly  ten 
years  of  childhood  a  resident  in  the  West  Indies,  educated 
a  Calvinist,  but  early  converted  to  the  Roman  faith, — 
Madame  de  Maintenon  had,  in  the  house  of  a  burlesque 
poet,  learned  the  art  of  conversation,  and,  in  the  intimate 
society  of  Ninon  de  1'Enclos,  had  studied  the  mysteries 
of  the  passions.  Of  a  clear  and  penetrating  mind,  of  a  cal- 
culating judgment,  which  her  calm  imagination  could  not 
lead  astray,  she  never  forgot  her  self-possession  in  a  gen- 
erous transport,  and  was  never  mastered  even  by  the  pas- 
sions which  she  indulged.  Already  advanced  in  life  when 
she  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  king,  whose  char- 


516  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIII. 

acter  she  profoundly  understood,  she  sought  to  inthrall  his 
mind  by  the  influences  of  religion ;  and,  becoming  herself 
devout  or  feigning  to  be  so,  always  modest  and  discreet, 
she  knew  how  to  awaken  in  him  compunctions  which  she 
alone  could  tranquillize,  and  subject  his  mind  to  her  sway 
by  substituting  the  sentiment  of  devotion  for  the  passion 
of  love.  The  conversion  of  the  Huguenots  was  to  excuse 
the  sins  of  his  earlier  years.  They,  like  herself,  were  to 
become  reconciled  to  the  church,  yet  not  by  methods  of 
violence.  Creeds  were  to  melt  away  in  the  sunshine  of 
favor,  and  proselytes  to  be  won  by  appeals  to  interest. 

Huguenots  were  therefore  to  be  employed  no  longer  in 
public  office ;  they  were,  as  far  as  possible,  excluded  from, 
the  guilds  of  tradesmen  and  mechanics;  and  a  Calvinist 
might  not  marry  a  Roman  Catholic  wife.  Direct  bribery 
was  also  employed ;  converts  were  purchased ;  and,  as  it 
seemed  not  unreasonable  that,  where  money  is  paid,  a  bar- 
gain should  be  fulfilled,  severe  laws  punished  a  relapse. 

The  multitude  may  always  defend  itself  against  the  pride 
of  arrogance,  by  claiming  for  itself  a  collective  wisdom  supe- 
rior to  that  of  the  wisest  individual.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  moral  qualities ;  there  exists  in  the  many  a  force  of  will 
which  no  violence  can  break,  a  firmness  of  conviction  which 
no  corruption  can  undermine.  The  first  methods  of  con- 
version were  fruitless.  Strange  human  nature !  In  men 
who  had  taken  a  bribe  for  conversion,  there  often  remained 
a  principle  strong  enough  to  sustain  them  in  returning  to 
their  first  opinions,  and  in  suffering  for  them. 

Proselytism  next  invaded  the  most  sacred  rights  of  hu- 
man nature,  and  children  of  seven  years  old  were  invited 
to  abjure  the  faith  of  their  fathers.  The  Huguenots  began 
to  emigrate;  for  their  industry  and  skill  made  them  wel- 
come in  every  Protestant  country ;  and  Louis,  desiring  to 
convert,  not  to  expel,  his  subjects,  forbade  emigration 
under  penalty  of  the  galleys.  The  ministers  of  the  Calvin- 
ists  were  now  tormented,  their  chapels  razed,  their  funds 
for  charitable  purposes  confiscated,  their  schools  shut  up, 
their  civil  officers  disfranchised.  Did  cruel  oppression 
provoke  disobedience  ?  The  rack  and  the  wheel  gave  to 
Huguenots  their  martyrs. 


1685.      FIRST   SETTLEMENTS   IN   SOUTH  CAROLINA.       517 

At  court,  the  triumph  of  the  widow  of  Scarron,  aided  by 
the  confessors,  seemed  complete ;  but  Louvois,  the  ambi- 
tious minister  of  war,  could  not  brook  this  superior  influ- 
ence ;  and,  since  the  conversion  of  Huguenots  was  the  path 
to  the  monarch's  favor,  he  resolved  to  enlist  the  military 
resources  of  France  in  the  service,  and  to  "  dragoon  "  the  Cal- 
vinists  into  a  reverence  for  the  church.  Instead  of 
missionaries,  soldiers  were  now  sent  into  Calvinistic  1684. 
districts,  to  be  quartered  in  Protestant  families,  and 
to  torment  them  into  conversion.  Meantime,  emigration 
was  a  felony,  and  the  frontiers  were  carefully  guarded  to 
prevent  it.  The  hounds  were  let  loose  on  game  shut  up 
in  a  close  park.  Here  was  an  invention  which  multiplied 
tyranny  indefinitely,  and  lodged  its  lustful  and  ferocious 
passions  within  the  i-ecesses  of  every  family. 

At  length,  the  edict  of  Nantes  was  formally  re- 
voked.   Calvinists  might  no  longer  preach  in  churches   ^^^ 
or  over  the  ruins  of  churches ;  all  public  worship  was 
forbidden  them ;  and  the  chancellor  Le  Tellier  could  shout 
aloud,   "Now,   Lord,   lettest  thou   thy  servant   depart   in 
peace  ;  "  even  Bossuet,  in  rhetoric  that  reflects  disgrace  on 
his  understanding  and  heart,  could  declare  the  total  over- 
throw of  heresy ;  while  Louis  XIV.  believed  his  glory  per- 
fected by  the  return  of  all  dissenters  to  the  Roman  church. 

But  the  extremity  of  danger  inspired  even  the  wavering 
with  courage.  They  were  exposed,  without  defence,  to  the 
fury  of  an  unbridled  soldiery,  whom  hatred  of  heretics  had 
steeled  against  humanity.  Property  was  put  in  danger 
of  being  plundered ;  religious  books  were  burnt ;  children 
torn  from  their  parents  ;  faithful  ministers,  who  would  not 
abandon  their  flocks,  broken  on  the  wheel.  Men  were 
dragged  to  the  altars,  to  be  tortured  into  a  denial  of  the 
faith  of  their  fathers  ;  and  a  relapse  was  punished  with  ex- 
treme rigor.  The  approach  of  death  removes  the  fear  of 
persecution  :  bigotry  invented  a  new  terror ;  the  bodies  of 
those  who  died  rejecting  the  sacraments  were  thrown  out  to 
wolves  and  dogs.  The  mean-spirited,  who  changed  th.-ir 
religion,  were  endowed  by  law  with  the  entire  property  of 


518  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIII. 

their  family.  The  dying  father  was  made  to  choose  be- 
tween wronging  his  conscience  or  beggaring  his  offspring. 
All  children  were  ordered  to  be  taken  away  from  Protes- 
tant parents  ;  but  that  law  it  was  impossible  to  enforce.  It 
became  a  study  to  invent  torments,  dolorous  but  not  mortal ; 
to  inflict  all  the  pain  the  human  body  could  endure,  and  not 
die.  What  need  of  recounting  the  horrid  enormities  com- 
mitted by  troops  whose  commanders  had  been  ordered  "  to 
use  the  utmost  rigor  towards  those  who  would  not  adopt 
the  creed  of  the  king?  to  push  to  an  extremity  the  vain- 
glorious fools  who  delayed  their  conversion  to  the  last "  ? 
What  need  of  describing  the  stripes,  the  roastings  by  slow 
fires,  the  plunging  into  wells,  the  gashes  from  knives, 
the  wounds  from  red-hot  pincers,  and  other  cruelties  em- 
ployed by  men  who  were  only  forbidden  to  ravish  or  to 
kill?  The  loss  of  lives  cannot  be  computed.  How  many 
thousands  of  men,  how  many  thousands  of  children  and 
women,  perished  in  the  attempt  to  escape,  who  can  tell? 
An  historian  has  asserted  that  ten  thousand  perished  at  the 
stake,  or  on  the  gibbet  and  the  wheel. 

But  truth  enjoys  serenely  her  own  immortality;  and 
opinion,  which  always  yields  to  a  clearer  conviction,  laughs 
violence  to  scorn.  The  Calvinists  preserved  their  faith 
over  the  ashes  of  their  churches  and  the  bodies  of  their 
murdered  ministers.  The  power  of  a  brutal  soldiery  was 
defied  by  whole  companies  of  faithful  men,  that  still  assem- 
bled to  sing  their  psalms;  and  from  the  country  and  the 
city,  from  the  comfortable  homes  of  wealthy  merchants, 
from  the  abodes  of  a  humbler  peasantry,  from  the  work- 
shops of  artisans,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  rose  up,  as 
with  one  heart,  and  bore  testimony  to  the  indefeasible,  irre- 
sistible right  to  freedom  of  mind. 

Every  wise  government  was  eager  to  offer  a  refuge  to 
the  men  who  would  carry  to  other  countries  the  arts,  the  in- 
dustrial skill,  and  the  wealth  of  France.  Emigrant  Hugue- 
nots put  a  new  aspect  on  the  north  of  Germany,  where 
they  constituted  towns  and  sections  of  cities,  introducing 
manufactures  before  unknown.  A  suburb  of  London  was 
filled  with  French  mechanics  ;  the  Prince  of  Orange  gained 


1685.      FIRST   SETTLEMENTS   IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA.       519 

entire  regiments  of  soldiers,  as  brave  as  those  whom  Cronv 
well  led  to  victory ;  a  colony  of  them  reached  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope.  In  our  America  they  were  welcome  every- 
where. The  religious  sympathies  of  New  England  were 
awakened  ;  did  any  arrive  in  poverty,  having  barely  escaped 
with  life,  the  towns  of  Massachusetts  contributed  liberally 
to  their  support,  and  provided  them  with  lands.  Others 
repaired  to  New  York ;  but  the  warmer  climate  was  more 
inviting  to  the  exiles  of  Languedoc,  and  South  Carolina 
became  the  chief  resort  of  the  Huguenots.  The  attempt 
to  emigrate  was  by  the  law  of  France  a  felony ;  yet,  in  spite 
of  every  precaution  of  the  police,  five  hundred  thousand 
souls  escaped  from  their  country. 

"  We  quitted  home  by  night,  leaving  the  soldiers  in  1685. 
their  beds,  and  abandoning  the  house  with  its  furni- 
ture," wrote  Judith,  the  young  wife  of  Pierre  Manigault. 
"  We  contrived  to  hide  ourselves  for  ten  days  at  Romans,  in 
Dauphiny,  while  a  search  was  made  for  us ;  but  our  faithful 
hostess  would  not  betray  us."  Nor  could  they  escape  to  the 
sea-side  except  by  a  circuitous  journey  through  Germany 
and  Holland,  and  thence  to  England,  in  the  depths  of  win- 
ter. "  Having  embarked  at  London,  we  were  sadly  off.  The 
spotted  fever  appeared  on  board  the  vessel,  and  many  died 
of  the  disease ;  among  these,  our  aged  mother.  We  touched 
at  Bermuda,  where  the  vessel  was  seized.  Our  money  was 
all  spent ;  with  great  difficulty  we  procured  a  passage  in 
another  vessel.  After  our  arrival  in  Carolina,  we  suffered 
every  kind  of  evil.  In  eighteen  months,  our  eldest  brother, 
unaccustomed  to  the  hard  labor  which  we  were  obliged 
to  undergo,  died  of  a  fever.  Since  leaving  France,  we 
had  experienced  every  kind  of  affliction,  disease,  pestilence, 
famine,  poverty,  hard  labor.  I  have  been  for  six  months 
without  tasting  bread,  working  the  ground  like  a  slave; 
and  I  have  passed  three  or  four  years  without  having  it 
when  I  wanted  it.  And  yet,"  adds  the  excellent  woman, 
"  God  has  done  great  things  for  us,  in  enabling  us  to  bear 
up  under  so  many  trials." 

This  family  was  but  one  of  many  that  found  a  shelter 
in  Carolina,  the  general  asylum  of  the  Calvinist  refugees. 


520  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIII. 

Escaping  from  a  kingdom  where  the  profession  of  their 
religion  was  a  felony,  where  their  estates  were  liable  to  be 
confiscated  in  favor  of  the  apostate,  where  the  preaching  of 
their  faith  was  a  crime  to  be  expiated  on  the  wheel,  where 
their  children  might  be  torn  from  them  to  be  subjected  to 
the  nearest  Catholic  relation,  the  fugitives  from  Languedoc 
on  the  Mediterranean,  from  Rochelle,  and  Saintange,  and 
Bordeaux,  the  provinces  on  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  from  St. 
Quentin,  Poictiers,  and  the  beautiful  valley  of  Tours,  from 
St.  Lo  and  Dieppe,  men  who  had  the  virtues  of  the  English 
Puritans  without  their  bigotry,  came  to  the  land  to  which 
Shaftesbury  had  invited  the  believer  of  every  creed.  From 
a  realm  whose  king,  in  wanton  bigotry,  had  driven  half 
a  million  of  its  best  citizens  into  exile,  they  came  to 
the  hospitable  refuge  of  the  oppressed  ;  where  superstition 
and  fanaticism,  infidelity  and  faith,  cold  speculation  and 
animated  zeal,  were  alike  admitted  without  question,  and 
where  the  fires  of  religious  persecution  were  never  to  be 
kindled.  There  they  obtained  an  assignment  of  lands,  and 
soon  had  tenements.  Their  church  was  in  Charleston ;  and 
on  every  Lord's  Day,  gathering  from  their  plantations  upon 
the  banks  of  the  Cooper,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  ebb 
and  flow  of  the  tide,  they  might  all  be  seen,  the  parents 
with  their  children,  whom  no  bigot  could  now  wrest  from 
them,  making  their  way  in  light  skiffs  to  the  flourishing 
village  at  the  confluence  of  the  rivers. 

Other  Huguenot  emigrants  established  themselves  on  the 
south  bank  of  the  Santee,  in  a  region  which  has  since  been 
celebrated  for  affluence  and  refined  hospitality. 

The  United  States  are  full  of  monuments  of  the  emigra- 
tions from  France.  When  the  struggle  for  independence 
arrived,  the  son  of  Judith  Manigault  intrusted  the  vast 
fortune  he  had  acquired  to  the  service  of  the  country  that 
had  adopted  his  mother.  The  hall  in  Boston,  where  the 
eloquence  of  New  England  rocked  the  infant  spirit  of 
independence,  was  the  gift  of  the  son  of  a  Huguenot. 
When  the  treaty  of  Paris  for  the  independence  of  our 
country  was  framing,  the  grandson  of  a  Huguenot,  ac- 
quainted from  childhood  with  the  wrongs  of  his  ancestors, 


1674.      FIRST   SETTLEMENTS  IN   SOUTH  CAROLINA.       521 

would  not  allow  his  jealousies  of  France  to  be  lulled,  and 
did  his  part  towards  stretching  the  boundary  of  the  states 
to  the  Mississippi.  On  our  north-eastern  frontier  state, 
the  name  of  the  oldest  college  bears  witness  to  the  wise 
liberality  of  a  descendant  of  the  Huguenots.  The  children 
of  the  Calvin  ists  of  France  have  reason  to  respect  the 
memory  of  their  ancestors. 

It  has  been  usual  to  relate  that  religious  bigotry  denied 
to  the  Huguenot  emigrants  immediate  denization.  If  full 
hospitality  was  for  a  season  withheld,  the  delay  grew  out 
of  a  controversy  in  which  all  Carolinians  had  a 
common  interest,  and  the  privileges  of  citizenship  *®jj' 
were  conceded  so  soon  as  it  could  be  done  by  Caro- 
linians themselves.  It  had  not  yet  been  determined  with 
whom  the  power  of  naturalizing  foreigners  resided,  nor  how 
Carolina  should  be  governed.  The  great  mass  of  the  people 
were  intent  on  framing  their  own  institutions  ;  and  collisions 
with  the  lords  proprietors  long  kept  the  government  in 
confusion. 

For  the  proprietary  power  was  essentially  weak.  The 
company  of  courtiers,  which  became  no  more  than  a  partner- 
ship of  speculators  in  colonial  lands,  had  not  sufficient  force 
to  resist  foreign  violence  or  assert  domestic  authority.  It 
could  derive  no  strength  but  from  the  colonists  or  from  the 
crown.  But  the  colonists  connected  self-protection  with 
the  right  of  self-government ;  and  the  crown  would  not 
incur  expense,  except  on  a  surrender  of  the  jurisdiction. 
The  proprietary  government,  having  its  organ  in  the  coun- 
cil, could  prolong  its  existence  only  by  concessions,  and 
was  destined  from  its  inherent  weakness  to  be  overthrown 
by  the  commons. 

At  first,  the  proprietaries  acquiesced  in  a  govern- 
ment which  had  little  reference  to  the  constitutions.       mo. 
The  first  governor  had  sunk  under  the  climate  and 
the  hardships  of  founding  a  colony.     His  successor,       leri. 
Sir  John  Yeamans,  was  a  sordid  calculator,  bent  on 
acquiring  a  fortune.     He  encouraged  expense,  and  enriched 
himself,   without  gaining   respect   or  hatred.      "  It 
must  be  a  bad  soil,"  said  his  weary  employers,  "  that       ieri 


522  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIII. 

will  not  maintain  industrious  men,  or  we  must  be  very 
silly  that  would  maintain  the  idle."  If  they  continued 
their  outlays,  it  was  in  hopes  of  seeing  vineyards  and  olive- 
groves  and  plantations  established ;  they  refused  supplies 
of  cattle,  and  desired  returns  in  compensation  for  their 
expenditures. 

The  moderation  and  good  sense  of  West  were  able 
Ii683.°  to  preserve  tranquillity  for  about  nine  years  ;  but  the 
lords,  who  had  first  purchased  his  services  by  the 
grant  of  all  their  merchandise  and  debts  in  Carolina,  in  the 
end  dismissed  him  from  office,  on  the  charge  that  he  favored 
the  popular  party. 

The  continued  struggles  with  the  proprietaries  hastened 
the  emancipation  of  the  people  from  their  rule ;  but  the 
praise  of  having  never  been  in  the  wrong  cannot  be  awarded 
to  the  colonists.  The  latter  claimed  the  right  of  weakening 
the  neighboring  Indian  tribes  by  a  partisan  warfare,  and 
a  sale  of  the  captives  into  "West  Indian  bondage  ;  their 
antagonists  demanded  that  the  treaty  of  peace  with  the 
natives  should  be  preserved.  Again,  the  proprietaries 
offered  some  favorable  modifications  of  the  constitutions  ; 
the  colonists  respected  the  modifications  no  more  than  the 
original  laws.  A  rapid  change  of  governors  augmented 
the  confusion.  There  was  no  harmony  of  interests  between 
the  lords  paramount  and  their  tenants,  or  of  authority 
between  the  executive  and  the  popular  assembly.  As  in 
other  colonies  south  of  the  Potomac,  colonial  legislation 
did  not  favor  the  collection  of  debts  that  had  been  con- 
tracted elsewhere  ;  the  proprietaries  demanded  a  rigid  con- 
formity to  the  cruel  and  intolerant  method  of  the  English 
courts.  It  had  been  usual  to  hold  the  polls  for  elections  at 
Charleston  only ;  as  population  extended,  the  proprietaries 
ordered  an  apportionment  of  the  representation ;  but  Caro- 
lina would  not  allow  districts  to  be  carved  out  and  repre- 
sentation to  be  apportioned  from  abroad;  and  the  useful 
reformation  could  not  be  adopted  till  it  was  demanded  and 
effected  by  the  people  themselves. 

England  had  always  favored  its  merchants  in  the  invasion 
of  the  Spanish  commercial  monopoly ;  had  sometimes  pro- 


1686.      FIKST   SETTLEMENTS   IN   SOUTH   CAROLINA.       523 

tected  pirates,  and  Charles  II.  had  knighted  a  freebooter. 
The  political  relations  of  the  pirate  and  the  contraband 
trader  underwent  a  corresponding  change.  But  men's  habits 
do  not  change  so  easily ;  and  in  Carolina,  especially  after 
Port  Royal  had  been  laid  waste  by  the  Spaniards,  there  were 
not  wanting  those  who  regarded  the  buccaneers  as  their 
natural  allies  against  a  common  enemy,  and  thus  opened  one 
more  issue  with  the  proprietaries. 

The  first  treaty  relating  to  America  between  Spain  and 
England  was  ratified  in  1667,  and  made  more  general  in 
1670.  Before  that  time  Spain  had  claimed  not  the  territory 
of  the  Carolinas  only,  but  that  of  Virginia,  New  England,  in 
short,  of  all  North  America.  By  this  convention  she  recog- 
nised as  English  the  colonies  which  England  then  possessed ; 
but  the  boundaries  in  the  south  and  west  were  not  de- 
termined. 

When  the  commerce  of  South  Carolina  had  so  in- 
creased that  a  collector  of  plantation  duties  was  less, 
appointed,  a  new  struggle  arose.  The  palatine  court, 
careful  not  to  offend  the  king,  who,  nevertheless,  was  not 
diverted  from  the  design  of  annulling  their  charter  by  a  pro- 
cess of  law,  gave  orders  that  the  acts  of  navigation  should 
be  enforced.  The  colonists,  who  had  made  themselves  in- 
dependent of  the  proprietaries  in  fact,  esteemed  themselves 
independent  of  parliament  of  right.  Here,  as  everywhere, 
the  acts  were  resisted  as  at  war  with  natural  equity,  and  as 
an  infringement  of  the  charter. 

The  pregnant  cause  of  dissensions  in  Carolina  could  not  be 
removed  till  the  question  of  powers  should  be  definitively 
settled.  The  proprietaries  were  willing  to  believe  that  the 
cause  existed  in  the  want  of  dignity  and  character  in  the 
governor.  That  affairs  might  be  more  firmly  established, 
James  Colleton,  a  brother  of  a  proprietary,  was  appointed 
governor,  with  the  rank  of  landgrave  and  an  endowment  of 
forty-eight  thousand  acres  of  land  ;  but  neither  his  relation- 
ship, nor  his  rank,  nor  his  reputation,  nor  his  office,  nor  his 
acres,  could  procure  for  him  obedience,  because  the  actual 
relations  between  the  contending  parties  were  in  no  lese. 
respect  changed.  When  Colleton  met  the  colonial 


524  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XVIII 

parliament  which  had  been  elected  before  his  arrival,  a 
majority  refused  to  acknowledge  the  binding  force  of  the 
constitutions;  by  a  violent  act  of  power,  Colleton,  like 
Cromwell  in  a  similar  instance  in  English  history,  excluded 
the  refractory  members  from  the  parliament.  These,  in 
their  turn,  protested  against  any  measures  which  might  be 
adopted  by  the  remaining  minority. 

A  new  parliament  was  still  more  intractable ;  and 
1687.       the  "  standing  laws  "  which  they  adopted  were  nega- 
tived by  the  palatine  court. 

From  questions  of  political  liberty,  the  strife  between  the 
parties  extended  to  all  their  relations.  When  Colleton  en- 
deavored to  collect  quit-rents  not  only  on  cultivated  fields, 
but  on  wild  lands,  direct  insubordination  ensued ;  and  the 
assembly,  imprisoning  the  secretary  of  the  province,  and 
seizing  the  records,  defied  the  governor  and  his  patrons. 

Colleton   resolved   on    one   last    desperate   effort, 

1689.  and,  pretending  danger  from  Indians  or  Spaniards, 
called  out  the  militia,   and    declared    martial    law. 

But  who  were  to  execute  martial  law  ?  The  militia  were 
the  people,  and  there  were  no  other  troops.  Colleton  was 
in  a  more  hopeless  condition  than  ever ;  for  the  assembly 
had  no  doubt  of  its  duty  to  protect  the  country  against  a 
military  despotism.  The  English  Revolution  of  1688  was 
therefore  imitated  on  the  banks  of  the  Ashley  and 

1690.  Cooper.      Soon  after  "William  and  Mary  were  pro- 
claimed, a  meeting  of  the  representatives  of  South 

Carolina  disfranchised  Colleton,  and  banished  him  from  the 
province. 


1652-60.        VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION.  525 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

VIRGINIA    AFTER    THE    RESTORATION. 

FOR  more  than  eight  years,  from  1652  to  1660,  "  THE 
PEOPLE  OF  VIRGINIA"  had  governed  themselves. 
Tranquillity  and  a  rapid  increase  of  population  prom-  1^0to 
ised  the  extension  of  its  borders;  and  colonial  life 
was  sweetened  by  the  enjoyment  of  equal  franchises.  No 
trace  of  established  privilege  appeared  in  its  code  or  its 
government;  in  its  forms  and  in  its  legislation,  Virginia 
was  a  representative  democracy ;  so  jealous  of  a  landed 
aristocracy  that  it  insisted  on  universality  of  suffrage ;  so 
hostile  to  the  influence  of  commercial  wealth  that  it  would 
not  tolerate  the  "  mercenary  "  ministers  of  the  law ;  so  con- 
siderate for  religious  freedom  that  each  parish  was  left  to 
take  care  of  itself.  Every  officer  was,  directly  or  indirectly, 
chosen  by  the  people. 

The  power  of  the  people  naturally  grew  out  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  early  settlers,  who  were,  most  of  them,  adven- 
turers, bringing  to  the  New  World  no  wealth  but  enterprise, 
no  rank  but  that  of  manhood,  no  privileges  but  those  of 
Englishmen.  The  principle  of  the  English  law  which  grants 
real  estate  to  the  eldest  born  was  respected ;  but  genera- 
tions of  Virginians  had  hardly  as  yet  succeeded  each  other ; 
the  rule  had  produced  no  effect  upon  society,  and,  from  the 
beginning,  had  been  modified  in  many  counties  by  the  cus- 
tom of  gavelkind.  Virginia  had  no  need  to  imitate  those 
great  legislative  reforms  of  the  Long  Parliament,  because 
her  happier  soil  was  free  from  the  burdens  of  forest  laws 
and  military  tenures,  courts  of  wards,  and  star-chambers. 
The  tendency  towards  a  multiplication  of  religious  sects 
began  to  be  perceptible  under  the  freedom  of  a  popular 
government.  In  its  care  for  a  regular  succession  of  repre- 
sentative assemblies,  Virginia  exceeded  the  jealous  friends 


526  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIX. 

of  republican  liberty  in  England  ;  there  triennial  parliaments 
had  been  established  by  law ;  the  Virginians,  imitating  the 
"  act  of  1640  for  preventing  inconveniences  happening  by 
the  long  intermission  of  parliament,"  claimed  the  privilege 
of  a  biennial  election  of  their  legislators.  In  addition  to 
the  strength  derived  from  the  natural  character  of  the  emi- 
grants, from  the  absence  of  feudal  institutions,  from  the  en- 
tire absence  of  the  excessive  refinements  of  legal  erudition, 
and  from  the  constitution,  legislation,  and  elective  fran- 
chises of  the  colonists,  a  new  and  undefined  increase  was 
gained  by  the  universal  prevalence  of  the  spirit  of  personal 
independence.  An  instinctive  aversion  to  too  much  gov- 
ernment was  always  a  trait  of  southern  character,  expressed 
in  the  solitary  manner  of  settling  the  country,  in  the  ab- 
sence of  municipal  governments,  in  the  indisposition  of  the 
scattered  inhabitants  to  engage  in  commerce,  to  collect  in 
towns,  or  to  associate  in  townships  under  corporate  powers. 
As  a  consequence,  there  was  little  commercial  industry  or 
accumulation  of  commercial  wealth.  The  exchanges  were 
made  almost  entirely  —  and  it  continued  so  for  more  than  a 
century  —  by  factors  of  foreign  merchants.  Thus  the  in- 
fluence of  wealth,  under  the  modern  form  of  stocks  and 
dealings  in  money,  was  always  inconsiderable ;  and  men 
were  so  widely  scattered  that  far  the  smallest  number 
'leeo!0  were  within  reach  of  the  direct  influence  of  the  estab- 
lished clmrch  or  of  government.  In  Virginia,  except 
in  matters  that  related  to  foreign  commerce,  a  man's  own 
will  went  far  towards  being  his  law. 

Yet  the  seeds  of  an  aristocracy  existed ;  and  there  was 
already  a  disposition  to  obtain  for  it  the  sanction  of  colonial 
legislation.  Unlike  Massachusetts,  Virginia  was  a  continu- 
ation of  English  society.  Its  history  is  the  development  of 
the  genuine  principle  of  English  liberty  under  other  con- 
ditions than  in  England.  The  first  colonists  were  not  fu- 
gitives from  persecution ;  they  came,  rather,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  nobility,  the  church,  and  the  mercantile  in- 
terests of  England ;  they  brought  with  them  an  attachment 
to  monarchy,  a  reverence  for  the  Anglican  church,  a  love 
for  England  and  English  institutions.  Their  minds  had 


1G52-60.        VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE   RESTORATION.  527 

never  been  disciplined  into  an  antipathy  to  feudalism ; 
their  creed  had  never  been  shaken  by  the  progress  of  skep- 
ticism ;  no  new  ideas  of  natural  rights  had  as  yet  inclined 
them  to  "faction."  The  Anglican  church  was  therefore, 
without  repugnance,  sanctioned  as  the  religion  of  the  state  ; 
and  a  religion  established  by  law  always  favors  an  upper 
class ;  for  it  seeks  support  not  in  conviction  only,  but 
in  vested  rights.  The  rise  of  the  plebeian  sects,  which 
swarmed  in  England,  was,  for  the  present  at  least,  pre- 
vented ;  and  unity  of  worship  with  few  exceptions  continued 
for  about  a  century  from  the  settlement  of  Jamestown. 
The  aristocracy  of  Virginia  was,  from  its  origin,  exclu- 
sively a  landed  aristocracy;  its  germ  lay  in  the  manner 
in  which  rights  to  the  soil  had  been  obtained.  For  every 
person  whom  a  planter  should,  at  his  own  charge,  transport 
into  Virginia,  he  could  claim  fifty  acres  of  land  ;  and  thus  a 
body  of  large  proprietors  had  existed  from  the  infancy  of 
the  settlement.  These  vast  possessions  were  often  an  in- 
heritance for  the  eldest  born. 

The  power  of  the  rising  aristocracy  was  still  further 
increased  by  the  deplorable  want  of  the  means  of  popular 
education  in  Virginia.  The  great  mass  of  the  rising  gener- 
ation could  receive  little  literary  culture  ;  its  higher  degrees 
were  confined  to  a  small  number  of  favored  emigrants. 
Many  of  the  royalists  who  came  over  after  the  death  of 
Charles  I.  brought  to  the  colony  the  breeding  that  belonged 
to  the  English  gentry  of  that  day;  and  the  direction  of 
affairs  fell  into  their  hands.  The  instinct  of  liberty  may 
create  popular  institutions ;  they  cannot  be  preserved  ex- 
cept by  the  conscious  intelligence  of  the  people. 

But  the  distinctions  in  society  were  rendered  more  marked 
by  the  character  of  the  population  of  Virginia.  Many 
had  reached  the  shores  of  Virginia  as  servants;  doomed, 
according  to  the  severe  laws  of  that  age,  to  a  temporary 
bondage.  Some  of  them,  even,  were  convicts ;  but  it 
must  be  remembered  the  crimes  of  which  they  were  con- 
victed were  chiefly  political.  The  number  transported  to 
Virginia  for  social  crimes  was  never  considerable ;  scam-ly 
enough  to  sustain  the  sentiment  of  pride  in  its  scorn  of  the 


528  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIX. 

laboring  population  ;  certainly  not  enough  to  affect  its  char- 
acter. Yet  the  division  of  society  into  two  classes  was 
marked  in  a  degree  unequalled  in  any  northern  colony, 
and  unmitigated  by  public  care  for  education.  "  The  almost 
general  want  of  schools  for  their  children  was  of  most  sad 
consideration,  most  of  all  bewailed  of  the  parents  there." 
"  Every  man,"  said  Sir  William  Berkeley  in  1671,  "  instructs 
his  children  according  to  his  ability ; "  a  method  which  left 
the  children  of  the  ignorant  to  hopeless  ignorance.  "  The 
ministers,"  continued  Sir  William,  "should  pray  oftener 
and  preach  less.  But,  I  thank  God,  there  are  no  free  schools 
nor  printing ; -and  I  hope  we  shall  not  have,  these  hundred 
years ;  for  learning  has  brought  disobedience  and  heresy  and 
sects  into  the  world,  and  printing  has  divulged  them,  and 
libels  against  the  best  government.  God  keep  us  from  both." 

Servants  were  emancipated,  when  their  years  of  servitude 
were  ended ;  and  the  law  was  designed  to  secure  and  to 
hasten  their  enfranchisement.  The  insurrection,  which  was 
plotted  by  a  number  of  servants  in  1663,  had  its  origin  in 
impatience  of  servitude  and  oppression.  A  few  bondmen, 
soldiers  of  Cromwell,  and  probably  Roundheads,  were  ex- 
cited by  their  own  sufferings,  and  by  the  nature  of  life  in 
the  wilderness,  to  indulge  once  more  in  vague  desires  for  a 
purer  church  and  a  happier  condition.  From  the  character 
of  the  times,  their  passions  were  sustained  by  political  fanat- 
icism ;  but  the  conspiracy  did  not  extend  beyond  a  scheme 
of  indented  servants  to  anticipate  the  period  of  their  free- 
dom. The  effort  was  the  work  of  ignorant  men,  and  was 
easily  suppressed.  The  facility  of  escape  compelled  humane 
treatment  of  white  servants,  who  formed  one  fifth  of  the 
adult  population. 

In    1671,  the  number  of  blacks  in  a  population  of  forty 

thousand  was  estimated  at  two  thousand  ;  not  above  two  or 

three  ships  of  negroes  arrived  in  seven  years.     The  statute 

of  the  previous  year,  which  declares  who  are  slaves,  followed 

an  idea,  long  prevalent  through  Christendom:  "All 

1670.       servants,  not   being   Christians,   imported   into   this 

1682.       country  by  shipping,  shall  be  slaves."     In  1682  it  was 

added :   "  Conversion   to    the   Christian    faith    doth 


1660.  VIRGINIA   AFTER  THE   RESTORATION.  529 

not  make  free."     The  early  Anglo-Saxon  rule,  interpreting 
every   doubtful   question   in   favor  of   liberty,  declared  the 
children  of  freemen  to  be  free.     Doubts  arose  if   the  off- 
spring of  an  Englishman  by  a  negro  woman  should  be 
bond  or  free ;  and  the  rule  of  the  Roman  law  pre-       im. 
vailed  over  the  Anglo-Saxon.     The  offspring  followed 
the  condition  of  its  mother.     In  1664,  Maryland,  by  "  the 
major   vote"   of  its  lower  house,  decided  that  "the  issue 
of    such   marriages   should    serve   thirty    years."     Enfran- 
chisement  of  the  colored   population  was  not  encouraged 
in   Virginia ;  the   female   slave  was  not   subject  to 
taxation ;  the  emancipated  negress  was  "  a  tithable."       ices. 
"  The  death  of  a  slave  from  extremity  of  correction 
was  not  accounted  felony;  since  it  cannot  be  presumed," 
such  is  the  language  of  the  statute,  "  that  prepensed 
malice,  which   alone  makes   murther  felony,   should       1669. 
induce  any  man  to  destroy  his  own  estate."     Finally,       1672. 
it  was  made  lawful  for  "  persons   pursuing  fugitive 
colored  slaves  to  wound,  or  even  to  kill  them."     The  master 
was  absolute  lord  over  the  negro.     The  slave,  and  the  slave's 
posterity,   were  bondmen.    As  property  in  Virginia  con- 
sisted mainly  of  land  and  laborers,  the  increase  of  negro 
slaves  was  grateful  to  the  pride  and  to  the  interests  of  the 
large  landed  proprietors. 

The  aristocracy,  which  was  thus  confirmed  in  its  influence 
by  the  extent  of  its  domains,  by  its  superior  intelligence,  and 
by  the  character  of  a  large  part  of  the  laboring  class,  aspired 
to  the  government  of  the  country;  from  among  them  the 
council  was  selected ;  many  of  them  were  returned  as  mem- 
bers of  the  legislature ;  and  they  held  commissions  in  the 
militia.  The  entire  absence  of  local  municipal  governments 
led  to  an  anomalous  extension  of  the  power  of  the  magis- 
trates. The  justices  of  the  peace  for  each  county  fixed 
the  amount  of  county  taxes,  assessed  and  collected  them, 
and  superintended  their  disbursement;  so  that  military, 
judicial,  legislative,  and  executive  powers  were  deposited 
in  their  hands. 

At  the  restoration,  two   elements  were   contend-      i860, 
ing  for  the  mastery  in  the  political  life  of  Virginia ; 
VOL.  i.  84 


530  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIX. 

on  the  one  hand,  there  was  in  the  Old  Dominion  a  people ; 
on  the  other,  a  rising  aristocracy.  The  present  de- 
1660.  cision  of  the  contest  would  depend  on  the  side  to  which 
the  sovereign  of  the  country  would  incline.  During 
the  few  years  of  the  interruption  of  monarchy  in  England, 
that  sovereign  had  been  the  people  of  Virginia ;  ai_l  its 
mild  and  beneficent  legislation  had  begun  to  loosen  the 
cords  of  religious  bigotry,  to  confirm  equality  of  franchises, 
to  foster  colonial  industry  by  freedom  of  traffic  with  the 
world.  The  restoration  of  monarchy  took  from  the  people 
of  Virginia  the  power  which  was  not  to  be  recovered  for 
more  than  a  century,  and  gave  to  the  superior  class  an 
ally  in  the  royal  government  and  its  officers.  The  early 
history  of  Virginia  not  onljt  illustrates  the  humane  and 
ameliorating  influences  of  popular  freedom,  but  also  presents 
a  picture  of  the  confusion,  discontent,  and  carnage,  which 
are  the  natural  consequences  of  selfish  legislation  and  a 
retrograde  movement  in  the  cause  of  liberty. 

The  emigrant  royalists  had  hitherto  not  acted  as  a  polit- 
ical party,  but  took  advantage  of  peace  to  establish  their 
fortunes.  Their  numbers  were  constantly  increasing ;  their 
character  and  education  procured*  them  respect  and  in- 
fluence; yet  no  collisions  ensued.  If  one  assembly  had, 
what  Massachusetts  never  did,  submitted  to  Richard  Crom- 
well ;  if  another  had  elected  Berkeley  as  governor,  the  power 
of  the  people  still  controlled  legislative  action.  But,  on  the 
tidings  of  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  the  fires  of  loyalty 
blazed  up.  Virginia  shared  the  passionate  joy  of  England. 
In  the  mother  country,  the  spirit  of  popular  liberty,  con- 
tending with  ancient  institutions  which  it  could  not  over- 
throw, had  been  productive  of  much  calamity,  and  had 
overwhelmed  the  tenets  of  popular  enfranchisement  in  dis- 
gust and  abhorrence  :  in  Virginia,  where  no  such  ancient 
abuses  existed,  the  same  spirit  had  been  productive  only  of 
benefits.  Yet  to  the  colony  England  seemed  a  home ;  and 
the  spirit  of  English  loyalty  pervaded  the  plantations  along 
the  Chesapeake.  "With  the  people  it  was  a  generous  enthu- 
siasm ;  to  many  of  the  leading  men  loyalty  opened  a  career 
for  ambition  ;  and,  with  general  consent,  Sir  William 


1CG1.  VIRGINIA  AFTER   THE   RESTORATION.  531 

Berkeley,  assuming  such  powers  as  his  royal  commission 
bestowed,  issued  writs  for  an  assembly  in  the  name  of  the 
king.  The  sovereignty  over  itself,  which  Virginia  had 
exercised  so  well,  had  come  to  an  end. 

The  first  assembly  which  was  elected  after  the  leei. 
restoration  was  composed  of  landholders  and  Cava- 
liers ;  men  in  whose  breasts  the  attachments  to  colonial  life 
had  not  mastered  the  force  of  English  usages.  Of  the 
assembly  of  1654,  not  more  than  two  members  were  elected ; 
of  the  assembly  of  March,  1660,  of  which  an  adjourned 
meeting  was  held  in  October,  the  last  assembly  elected 
during  the  interruption,  only  eight  were  re-elected  to  the 
first  assembly  of  Charles  II.,  and,  of  these  eight,  not  more 
than  five  retained  their  places.  New  men  came  upon  the 
theatre  of  legislation,  bringing  with  them  new  principles. 
The  restoration  was,  for  Virginia,  a  political  revolution. 

The  "  first  session  "  of  the  royalist  assembly  was  in 
March,  1661.     One  of  its  earliest  acts,  disfranchising  Mar.  12. 
a  magistrate  "  for  factious  and  schismatical  demean- 
ors," marks  its  political  character  ;  but,  as  democratic  insti- 
tutions had  tranquilly  and  naturally  been  introduced,  so 
the  changes  which  were  now  to  take  place  proceeded  from 
the  instinct  of  selfishness,  the  hatred  to  popular  power,  the 
blind  respect  for  English  precedents. 

Apprehensions  were  awakened  by  the  establishment  of 
the  navigation  act ;  and  the  assembly,  alarmed  at  this  open 
violation  of  the  natural  and  prescriptive  "freedoms"  of 
the  colony,  appointed  Sir  William  Berkeley  its  agent,  to 
present  its  grievances  and  procure  their  redress  through 
the  favor  of  its  monarch.  The  New  England  states,  from 
the  perpetual  dread  of  royal  interference,  persevered  in 
soliciting  charters,  till  they  were  obtained ;  Virginia,  un- 
happy in  her  confidence,  lost  irrevocably  the  opportunity 
of  obtaining  a  liberal  patent. 

The  Ancient  Dominion  was  equally  unfortunate  in  the 
selection  of  its  agent.  Sir  William  Berkeley  did  not,  even 
after  years  of  experience,  understand  the  act  against  which 
he  was  deputed  to  expostulate.  We  have  seen  that  he 
obtained  for  himself  and  partners  a  dismemberment  of  the 


532  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIX. 

territory  of  Virginia ;  for  the  colony  he  did  not  secure  one 
franchise ;  the  king  employed  its  loyalty  to  its  injury.  At 
the  hands  of  Charles  II.,  the  democratic  colonies  of  Rhode 
Island  and  Connecticut  received  greater  favor. 
i66i.  For  more  than  a  year  the  navigation  act  was 
July  21.  virtually  evaded ;  mariners  of  New  England,  lading 
their  vessels  with  tobacco,  did  but  touch  at  a  New  Eng- 
land harbor  on  the  sound,  and  immediately  sail  for  the 
wharfs  of  New  Amsterdam.  But  this  remedy  was  par- 
tial and  transient.  The  act  of  navigation  could  easily  be 
executed  in  Virginia,  because  it  had  few  ships  of  its  own, 
and  no  foreign  vessel  dared  to  enter  its  ports.  The  unequal 
legislation  pressed  upon  its  interests  with  intense  severity. 
The  number  of  the  purchasers  of  its  tobacco  was  dimin- 
ished ;  and  the  English  factors,  sure  of  their  mai-ket,  grew 
careless  about  the  quality  of  their  supplies.  To  the  colonist 
as  consumer,  the  price  of  foreign  goods  was  enhanced ;  to 
the  colonist  as  producer,  the  opportunity  of  a  market  was 
narrowed. 

Virginia  long  attempted  to  devise  a  remedy  against  the 
commercial  oppression  of  England.  It  was  the  strong  ex- 
ercising tyranny  over  the  weak ;  there  could  be  no  remedy 
but  independence.  The  burden  was  the  more  intolerable, 
because  it  produced  no  public  revenue.  It  was  established 
exclusively  to  favor  the  monopoly  of  the  English  merchant ; 
and  its  avails  were  all  abandoned  to  the  officers  to  stimulate 
their  vigilance. 

Thus,  while  the  rising  aristocracy  of  Virginia  was  seek- 
ing the  aid  of  royal  influence  to  confirm  its  supremacy, 
the  policy  of  the  English  government  oppressed  colonial 
industry  so  severely  as  to  unite  the  province  in  opposi- 
tion. The  party  which  joined  with  the  king  in  the  de- 
sire of  gaining  a  triumph  over  democratic  influences  was 
always  on  the  point  of  reconciling  itself  with  the  people, 
and  making  a  common  cause  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
metropolis. 

At  the  restoration,  the  extreme  royalist  party  ac- 
quired the  ascendency  in  the  legislature.    We  have 
seen  that  the  assembly  disfranchised  "  a  factious  and  schis- 


1602.  VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE   RESTORATION. 

matical  magistrate ; "  in  the  course  of  its  long-continued  ses- 
sions, it  effected  a  radical  change  in  the  democratical  features 
of  the  constitution.  The  committee  which  was  appointed  to 
reduce  the  laws  of  Virginia  to  a  code  repealed  the  milder 
laws  that  she  had  adopted  when  she  governed  herself. 
The  English  Episcopal  Church  became  once  more  the  re- 
ligion of  the  state ;  and  though  there  were  not  ministers 
in  above  a  fifth  part  of  the  parishes,  so  that  "  it  was  scat- 
tered in  the  desolate  places  of  the  wilderness  without  comeli- 
ness," yet  the  laws  demanded  strict  conformity,  and  required 
of  every  one  to  contribute  to  its  support.  For  as- 
sessing parish  taxes,  twelve  vestrymen  were  now  to  1662. 
be  chosen  in  each  parish,  with  power  to  fill  all 
vacancies  in  their  own  body.  The  control  in  church  affairs 
passed  from  the  parish  to  a  close  corporation,  which  the 
parish  could  henceforward  neither  alter  nor  overrule.  The 
whole  liturgy  was  required  to  be  thoroughly  read  ;  no  non- 
conformist might  teach,  even  in  private,  under  pain  of  ban- 
ishment; no  reader  might  expound  the  Catechism  or  the 
Scriptures.  The  obsolete  severity  of  the  laws  of  Queen 
Elizabeth  was  revived  against  the  Quakers;  their  absence 
from  church  was  made  punishable  by  a  monthly  fine  of 
twenty  pounds  sterling.  To  meet  in  conventicles  of  their 
own  was  forbidden  under  further  penalties.  A  large 
number  of  Quakers  was  arraigned  before  the  court  April  4. 
as  recusants.  "Tender  consciences,"  said  Owen, 
firmly,  "  must  obey  the  law  of  God,  however  they  suffer." 
"  There  is  no  toleration  for  wicked  consciences,"  was  the 
reply  of  the  court.  The  Reformation  had  diminished  the 
power  of  the  clergy  by  declaring  marriage  a  civil  contract, 
not  a  sacrament ;  Virginia  suffered  no  marriage  to  be  cele- 
brated but  according  to  the  rubric  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer. 

Among  the  plebeian  sects  of  Christianity,  the  single-minded 
simplicity  with  which  the  Baptists  had,  from  their  origin,  as- 
serted the  enfranchisement  of  mind  and  the  equal  rights  of 
the  humblest  classes  of  society,  naturally  won  converts 
in  America  at  an  early  day.  The  legislature  of  Vir-  DM 
ginia,  assembling  soon  after  the  return  of  Berkeley 


634 


COLONIAL   HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIX. 


from  a  voyage  that  had  been  fruitless  to  the  colony,  de- 
clared to  the  world  that  there  were  scattered  among  the 
rude  settlements  of  the  Ancient  Dominion  "many  schis- 
matical  persons,  so  averse  to  the  established  religion,  and 
so  filled  with  the  new-fangled  conceits  of  their  own  heretical 
inventions,  as  to  refuse  to  have  their  children  baptized ; " 
and  the  novelty  was  punished  by  a  heavy  mulct.  The  free- 
dom of  the  forests  favored  originality  of  thought ;  in  spite 
of  legislation,  men  listened  to  the  voice  within  themselves 

as  to  the  highest  authority ;  and  Quakers  continued 
Sept.  to  multiply.  Virginia,  as  if  resolved  to  hasten  the 

colonization  of  North  Carolina,  sharpened  her  laws 
against  all  separatists,  punished  their  meetings  by  heavy 
fines,  and  ordered  the  more  affluent  to  pay  the  forfeitures 
of  the  poor.  The  colony  that  should  have  opened  its  doors 
wide  to  all  the  persecuted  punished  the  ship-master  that 
received  non-conformists  as  passengers,  and  threatened  such 
as  resided  in  the  colony  with  banishment.  John  Porter, 

the  burgess  for  Lower  Norfolk,  was  expelled  from 
Sept.  12.  the  assembly,  "  because  he  was  well  affected  to  the 

Quakers." 

The  legislature  was  equally  friendly  to  the  power  of  the 
crown.     In  every  colony  where  Puritanism  prevailed  there 

was  a  uniform  disposition  to  refuse  a  fixed  salary  to 
Manlh.  tne  royal  governor.  Virginia,  at  a  time  when  the 

chief  magistrate  was  elected  by  its  own  citizens,  had 
voted  a  fixed  salary  for  that  magistrate ;  but  the  measure, 

even  then,  was  so  little  agreeable  to  the  people  that 
M^ch.  its  next  assembly  repealed  the  law.  The  royalist  leg- 
islature, for  the  purpose  of  well  paying  his  majesty's 
officers,  established  a  perpetual  revenue  by  a  permanent 
imposition  on  all  exported  tobacco ;  and  the  royal  officers 
of  Virginia,  requiring  no  further  action  of  an  assembly  for 
granting  taxes,  were  placed  above  the  influence  of  colonial 
legislation.  They  depended  on  the  province  neither  for 
their  appointment  nor  their  salary;  and  the  country  was 

governed  according  to  royal  instructions,  which  did 
Sep6t62i2.  indeed  recognise  the  existence  of  colonial  assemblies, 

but  offered  no  guarantee  for  their  continuance.     The 


1670.  VIRGINIA  AFTER   THE  RESTORATION.  535 

permanent  salary  of  the  governor  of  Virginia,  increased  by 
a  special  grant  from  the  colonial  legislature,  exceeded  the 
whole  annual  expenditure  of  Connecticut;  but  Berkeley 
was  dissatisfied.  A  thousand  pounds  a  year  would  not,  he 
used  to  say,  "maintain  the  port  of  his  place;  no  govern- 
ment of  ten  years'  standing  but  has  thrice  as  much  allowed 
him.  But  I  am  supported  by  my  hopes  that  his  gracious 
majesty  will  one  day  consider  me." 

The  governor  and  council  were  the  highest  ordinary 
tribunal;  and  these  were  all  appointed,  directly  or  in- 
directly, by  the  crown.  Besides  this,  there  were  in  each 
county  eight  unpaid  justices  of  the  peace,  commissioned 
by  the  governor  during  his  pleasure.  These  justices  held 
monthly  courts  in  their  respective  counties.  Thus  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice  in  the  counties  was  in  the  hands 
of  persons  holding  their  offices  at  the  good-will  of  the  gov- 
ernor ;  while  the  governor  himself  and  his  executive  council 
constituted  the  general  court,  and  had  cognizance  of  all 
sorts  of  causes.  Was  an  appeal  made  to  chancery,  it 
was  but  for  another  hearing  before  the  same  men ;  and  it 
was  only  for  a  few  years  longer  that  appeals  were  permitted 
from  the  general  court  to  the  assembly.  The  place  of  sheriff 
in  each  county  was  conferred  in  rotation  on  one  of  the  jus- 
tices for  that  county. 

The  county  courts,  thus  independent  of  the  people, 
possessed  and  exercised  the  arbitrary  power  of  levying 
county  taxes,  which,  in  their  amount,  usually  exceeded  the 
public  levy.  This  system  proceeded  so  far  that  the  com- 
missioners of  themselves  levied  taxes  to  meet  their  own 
expenses.  In  like  manner,  the  self-perpetuating  vestries 
made  out  their  lists  of  tithables,  and  assessed  taxes  without 
regard  to  the  consent  of  the  parish.  These  private  levies 
were  unequal  and  oppressive ;  were  seldom,  it  is  said  never, 
brought  to  audit,  and  were,  in  some  cases  at  least,  managed 
by  men  who  combined  to  defraud  the  public. 

For  the  organization  of  the  courts,  ancient  usage  could 
be  pleaded ;  a  series  of  innovations  gradually  effected 
a  revolution  in  the  system  of  representation.  The  dura- 
tion of  assemblies  was  limited  by  law  to  two  years.  By 


536  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIX. 

1662.  the  members  of  the  first  assembly,  elected  after  the 
restoration  for  a  period  of  two  years  only,  the  law, 
which  limited  the  duration  of  their  legislative  service,  and 
secured  the  benefits  of  frequent  elections  and  swift  re- 
sponsibility, was  "  utterly  abrogated  and  repealed."  The 
legislators,  on  whom  the  people  had  conferred  a  political 
existence  of  two  years,  assumed  to  themselves,  by  their 
own  act,  an  indefinite  continuance  of  their  powers.  The 
parliament  of  England,  chosen  on  the  restoration,  was  no£ 
dissolved  for  eighteen  years  ;  the  legislature  of  Virginia 
retained  its  authority  for  almost  as  long  a  period,  and 
yielded  it  only  to  an  insurrection.  Meantime,  "the  meet- 
ing of  the  people,  at  the  usual  places  of  election,"  had  for 
their  object,  not  to  elect  burgesses,  but  to  present  their 
grievances  to  the  burgesses  of  the  adjourned  assembly. 

The  wages  of  the  burgesses  were  paid  by  the  respective 
counties  ;  and  their  constituents  had  possessed  influence  to 
determine  both  the  number  of  burgesses  to  be  elected  and  the 
rate  of  their  emoluments.  This  method  of  influence  was 
taken  away  by  a  law,  which,  wisely  but  for  its  coincidence 
with  other  measures,  fixed  both  the  number  and  the  charge 
of  the  burgesses.  But  the  rate  of  wages  was  for  that  age 
enormously  burdensome,  far  greater  than  is  tolerated  in  the 
wealthiest  states  in  these  days  of  opulence  ;  and  it  was  fixed 
by  an  assembly  for  its  own  members,  who  had  usurped,  as 
it  were,  a  perpetuity  of  office.  The  taxes  for  this  purpose 
were  paid  with  great  reluctance,  and,  as  they  amounted  to 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco  or  about 
nine  dollars,  for  the  daily  emoluments  of  each  member, 
became  for  a  new  country  an  intolerable  grievance.  Dis- 
content was  increased  by  the  favoritism  which  exempted 
councillors  from  the  levies. 

The  freedom  of  elections  was  further  impaired  by  "  fre- 
quent false  returns  "  made  by  the  sheriffs.  Against  these 
the  people  had  no  redress,  for  the  sheriffs  were  responsible 
neither  to  them  nor  to  officers  of  their  appointment.  And 
how  could  a  more  pregnant  cause  of  discontent  exist  in  a 
country  where  the  elective  franchise  was  cherished  as  the 
dearest  civil  privilege  ? 


1670.  VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE   RESTORATION.  537 

• 

No  direct  taxes  were  levied  in  those  days  except  on 
polls ;  lands  escaped  taxation.  The  method,  less  arbitrary 
in  Virginia,  where  property  consisted  chiefly  in  a  claim  to 
the  labor  of  servants  and  slaves,  than  in  a  commercial  country, 
or  where  labor  is  free,  was  yet  oppressive  to  the  less 
wealthy  classes.  The  burgesses,  themselves  great  Se|jf  ^ 
landholders,  resisted  the  reform  which  Berkeley  had 
urged,  of  "  a  levy  upon  lands,  and  not  upon  heads,"  and 
connected  the  burden  of  the  tax  with  the  privileges  of 
citizenship.  If  lands  should  be  taxed,  none  but  landholders 
should  elect  the  legislature ;  and  then,  it  was  added,  "  the 
other  freemen,  who  are  the  more  in  number,  may  repine  to 
be  bound  to  those  laws  they  have  no  representations  to 
assent  to  the  making  of.  And  we  are  so  well  acquainted 
with  the  temper  of  the  people  that  we  have  reason  to  believe 
they  had  rather  pay  their  tax  than  lose  that  privilege." 

The  jealous  love  for  liberty  was  remembered  when  it 
furnished  an  excuse  for  continuing  an  unjust  method-  of 
taxation.  But  the  system  of  universal  suffrage  could  not 
permanently  find  favor  with  an  assembly  which  had  given  to 
itself  an  indefinite  existence,  and  which  labored  to  reproduce 
in  the  New  World  the  inequalities  of  English  legislation.  It 
was  discovered  that  "  the  usual  way  of  chusing  burgesses 
by  the  votes  of  all  freemen  "  produced  "  tumults  and  dis- 
turbance." The  instinct  of  aristocratic  bigotry  denied  that 
the  electors  would  make  "  choyce  of  persons  fitly  qualified 
for  so  greate  a  trust."  The  restrictions  adopted  by  the 
monarchical  government  of  England  were  cited  as 
a  fit  precedent  for  English  colonies  ;  and  it  was  en-  JjjJ^' 
acted  that  "none  but  freeholders  and  housekeepers 
shall  hereafter  have  a  voice  in  the  election  of  any  burgesses." 
The  majority  of  the  people  of  Virginia  were  disfranchised 
by  the  act  of  their  own  representatives. 

The  great  result  of  modern  civilization  is  the  diffusion  of 
intelligence  among  the  masses,  and  a  consequent  increase 
of  their  political  consideration.  That  the  power  of  the 
people  has  everywhere  increased,  is  the  undisputed  induc- 
tion from  the  history  of  every  nation  of  European  origin. 
The  restoration  of  Charles  II.  was  to  Virginia  a  political 


538  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIX. 

• 

revolution,  opposed  to  the  principles  of  popular  liberty 
which  she  professed  and  the  course  of  humane  legislation  on 
which  she  had  entered.  An  assembly  continuing  for  an 
indefinite  period  at  the  pleasure  of  the  governor,  and  de- 
creeing to  its  members  extravagant  and  burdensome  emolu- 
ments ;  a  royal  governor,  whose  salary  was  established  by 
a  permanent  system  of  taxation  ;  a  constituency  restricted 
and  diminished ;  religious  liberty  taken  away  almost  as 
soon  as  it  had  been  won  ;  arbitrary  taxation  in  the  counties 
by  irresponsible  magistrates ;  a  hostility  to  popular  educa- 
tion and  to  the  press,  —  these  were  the  changes  which,  in  a 
period  of  ten  years,  had  been  wrought  by  a  usurping  gov- 
ernment. 

Meantime,  the  beauty  and  richness  of  the  province  were 
becoming  better  known.  Towards  the  end  of  May,  1670, 
the  governor  of  Virginia  sent  out  an  exploring  party  of 
men  to  discover  the  country  beyond  the  mountains,  which, 
it  was  believed,  would  open  a  way  to  the  South  Sea.  The 
Blue  Ridge  they  found  high  and  rocky,  and  thickly  grown 
with  wood.  Early  in  June  they  were  stopped  by  a  river, 
which  they  guessed  to  be  four  hundred  and  fifty  yards  wide. 
It  was  very  rapid  and  full  of  rocks,  running,  so  far  as  they 
could  see,  due  north  between  the  hills,  "  with  banks  in  most 
places,"  according  to  their  computation,  "  one  thousand 
yards  high."  Beyond  the  river  they  reported  other  hills, 
naked  of  wood,  broken  by  white  cliffs,  which  in  the  morning 
were  covered  with  a  thick  fog.  The  report  of  the  explorers 
did  not  destroy  the  confidence  that  those  mountains  con- 
tained silver  or  gold,  nor  that  there  were  rivers  "falling 
the  other  way  into  the  ocean."  In  the  autumn  of  the 
next  year  the  exploration  of  the  valley  of  Kanawha  was 
continued. 

The  English  parliament  crippled  the  industry  of  Virginia ; 
the  colonial  assembly  diminished  the  franchises  of  its  peo- 
ple ;  Charles  II.  was  equally  careless  of  their  rights 
1649.  and  property.  Just  after  the  execution  of  Charles  I., 
during  the  despair  of  the  royalists,  a  patent  for  the 
Northern  Neck,  that  is,  for  the  country  between  the  Rappa- 
hannock  and  the  Potomac,  had  been  granted  to  a  company 


1674.  VIRGINIA  AFTER   THE   RESTORATION.  539 

of  Cavaliers  as  a  refuge.     About  nine  years  after  the 
restoration,  this  patent  was  surrendered,  that  a  new      $£*,• 
one  might  be  issued  to  Lord  Culpepper,  who  had 
succeeded  in  acquiring  the  shares  of  all  the  associates.    The 
grant  was  extremely  oppressive,  for  it  included  plantations 
which  had  long  been  cultivated.    But  the  prodigality  of  the 
king  was  not  exhausted.     To  Lord  Culpepper,  one  of  the 
most  cunning  and  most  covetous  men  in  England,  at  the  time 
a  member  of  the  commission  for  trade  and  plantations,  and 
to  Henry,  Earl  of  Arlington,  the  best  bred  person  at  the 
royal  court,  father-in-law  to  the  king's  son  by  Lady  Castle- 
main  e,  ever  in  debt  exceedingly,  and  passionately  fond  of 
things  rich,  polite,  and  princely,  the  lavish  sovereign 
of  England  gave  away  "  all  the  dominion  of  land  and  rl^s^ 
water  called  Virginia,"  for  the  term  of  thirty-one 
years. 

The  assembly  of  Virginia,  composed  in  a  great  part  of 
opulent  landholders,  was  roused  by  these  thoughtless  grants 
of  a  profligate  prince ;  and  Francis  Moryson,  Thomas  Lud- 
well,  and  Robert  Smith,  were  appointed  agents  to  sail 
for  England,  and  enter  on  the  difficult  duty  of  recov-  sep^lh 
ering  for  the  king  that  supremacy  which  he  had 
so  foolishly  dallied  away.  "  We  are  unwilling,"  said  the 
assembly,  "and  conceive  we  ought  not  to  submit  to 
those  to  whom  his  majesty,  upon  misinformation,  hath 
granted  the  dominion  over  us,  who  do  most  contentedly 
pay  to  his  majesty  more  than  we  have  ourselves  for  our 
labor.  Whilst  we  labor  for  the  advantage  of  the  crown, 
and  do  wish  we  could  be  yet  more  advantageous  to  the  king 
and  nation,  we  humbly  request  not  to  be  subjected  to  our 
fellow-subjects,  but,  for  the  future,  to  be  secured  from  our 
fears  of  being  enslaved."  Berkeley's  commission  as  gov- 
ernor had  expired ;  the  aristocratic  legislature,  which  had 
already  voted  him  a  special  increase  of  salary,  and  which 
had  continued  itself  in  power  by  his  connivance,  solicited 
his  appointment  as  governor  for  life. 

The  envoys  of  Virginia  were  instructed  to  ask  for  the 
colony  the  immunities  of  a  corporation  which  could  resist 
further  encroachments,  andf  according  to  the  forms  of 


540  COLONIAi;  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XIX. 

English  law,  purchase  of  the  grantees  their  rights  to  the 
country.  The  agents  fulfilled  their  instructions,  and  as- 
serted the  natural  liberties  of  the  colonists. 

We  arrive  at  the  moment  when  almost  for  the  last  time 
the  old  spirit  of  English  liberty,  such  as  had  been  cher- 
ished by  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  and  Southampton  and  Fcrrar, 
flashed  up  once  more  in  the  government  of  the  Stuarts. 
Among  the  heads  of  the  charter  which  the  agents  of  Vii*- 
ginia  were  commanded  by  their  instructions  to  entreat  of 
the  king,  it  was  proposed  "that  there  should  be  no  tax 
or  imposition  laid  on  the  people  of  Virginia  but  by  their 
own  consent,  expressed  by  their  representatives  in  assembly 
as  formerly  provided  by  many  acts."  "  This,"  wrote  Lord 
Coventry,  or  one  who  expressed  his  opinion,  "  this  I  judge 
absolutely  necessary  for  their  well-being,  and  what  in  effect 
Magna  Charta  gives ;  and  besides,  as  they  conceive,  will 
secure  them  from  being  subject  to  a  double  jurisdiction, 
viz.,  the  lawes  of  an  English  parliament  where  they  have 
noe  representatives."  The  subject  was  referred  by  an  order 
in  council  to  Sir  William  Jones  and  Francis  Winnington, 

the  attorney  and  solicitor  general ;  and,  in  their  re- 
1675.  port  of  the  twelfth  of  October,  1675,  they  adopted  the 

clause  in  its  fullest  extent,  with  no  restriction  except 
the  provision  "  that  the  concession  bee  noe  bar  to  any 
imposition  that  may  bee  laid  by  act  of  parliament  here," 
that  is,  in  England,  "  on  the  commodities  which  come  from 
that  country."  At  the  court  at  Whitehall,  on  the  nine- 
teenth of  November,  this  report  was  submitted  to  the  king 
in  council,  who  declared  himself  inclined  to  favor  his  sub- 
jects in  Virginia  and  give  them  all  due  encouragement ; 
he  therefore  directed  letters  patent  to  be  prepared  con- 
firming all  things  in  the  report.  The  charter  was  prepared 
as  decreed,  and,  on  the  nineteenth  of  April,  1676,  it  was 
ordered  by  the  king  in  council  "  that  the  lord  chancellor 
doe  cause  the  said  grant  to  pass  under  the  great  seale  of 
England  accordingly."  It  might  have  seemed  that  a  great 
era  was  opening  upon  England  through  the  solemn  con- 
cession to  the  oldest  of  her  colonies  of  all  the  rights  of 
independent  legislation.  In  the  progress  of  their  suit,  the 


1674.  VIRGINIA  AFTER  THE  RESTORATION.  541 

agents  of  Virginia  were  grateful  for  the  support  of  Cov- 
entry, whom  they  extolled  as  one  of  the  worthiest  of  men. 
They  owned  the  aid  of  Jones  and  Winnington  ;  and  they 
had  the  voices  "of  many  great  friends,"  won  by  $  sense 
of  humanity,  or  submitting  to  be  bribed  by  poor  Virginia. 
But  a  stronger  influence  was  secretly  and  permanently 
imbodied  in  favor  of  the  despotic  administration  of  the 
colonies,  and  the  consequent  chances  of  great  emoluments 
to  courtiers.  On  the  thirty-first  of  May,  the  king  in  coun- 
cil reversed  his  former  decree,  and  ordered  that  "  the  lord 
high  chancellor  of  England  doe  forbeare  putting  the  great 
Beale  to  the  patent  concerning  Virginia,  notwithstanding 
the  late  order  of  the  nineteenth  April  last  past."  The 
irrevocable  decision  against  the  grant  of  a  charter  was 
made  before  the  news  reached  England  of  events  which 
involved  the  Ancient  Dominion  in  gloom. 


542  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  XX. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

THE    GBEAT   REBELLION   IN  VIRGINIA. 

AT  the  time  when  the  envoys  were  appointed,  Virginia 
was  rocking  with  the  excitements  that  grew  out  of 
1674.  its  domestic  griefs.  The  rapid  and  effectual  abridg- 
ment of  its  popular  liberties,  joined  to  the  uncertain 
tenure  of  property  that  followed  the  announcement  of  the 
royal  grants,  would  have  roused  any  nation  ;  how  much 
more  a  people  like  the  Virginians !  The  generation  now 
in  existence  were  chiefly  the  children  of  the  soil,  nurtured 
in  the  freedom  of  the  wilderness,  and  dwelling  in  lonely 
cottages  scattered  along  the  streams.  Of  able-bodied  free- 
men, the  number  was  estimated  at  not  far  from  eight 
thousand.  No  newspapers  entered  their  houses ;  no  print- 
ing-press furnished  them  a  book.  They  had  no  recreations 
but  such  as  nature  provides  in  her  wilds ;  no  education  but 
such  as  parents  in  the  desert  could  give  their  offspring. 
The  paths  were  bridleways  rather  than  roads ;  and  the  high- 
way surveyors  aimed  at  nothing  more  than  to  keep  them 
clear  of  logs  and  fallen  trees.  There  was  not  an  engineer 
in  the  country.  I  doubt  if  thei'e  existed  what  we  should 
call  a  bridge  in  the  whole  dominion.  Visits  were  made  in 
boats  or  on  horseback ;  and  the  Virginian,  travelling  with 
his  pouch  of  tobacco  for  currency,  swam  the  rivers,  where 
there  was  neither  ferry  nor  ford.  Almost  every  planter 
was  his  own  mechanic.  The  houses,  for  the  most  part  of 
but  one  story,  and  made  of  wood,  often  of  logs,  the  win- 
dows closed  by  shutters  for  want  of  glass,  were  sprinkled  at 
great  distances  on  both  sides  of  the  Chesapeake.  There 
was  hardly  such  a  sight  as  a  cluster  of  three  dwellings. 
Jamestown  was  but  a  place  of  a  state  house,  one  church,  and 
eighteen  houses,  occupied  by  about  a  dozen  families.  Till 
very  recently,  the  legislature  had  assembled  in  the  hall  of 


1674.  THE   GREAT   REBELLION   IN  VIRGINIA  543 

an  alehouse.  Virginia  had  neither  towns  nor  lawyers.  As 
to  shipping,  there  never  were  more  than  two  vessels,  and  these 
not  above  twenty  tons'  burden.  A  few  of  the  wealthier 
planters  lived  in  braver  state  at  their  large  plantations,  and, 
surrounded  by  indented  servants  and  slaves,  produced  a 
form  of  society  that  has  sometimes  been  likened  to  the  man- 
ners of  the  patriarchs,  and  sometimes  to  the  baronial  pride 
of  feudalism.  The  inventory  of  Sir  William  Berkeley  gave 
him  seventy  horses,  as  well  as  large  flocks  of  sheep.  "  Al- 
most'every  man  lived  within  sight  of  a  lovely  river."  The 
parish  was  of  such  extent,  spreading  over  a  tract  which  a 
day's  journey  could  not  cross,  that  the  people  met  together 
but  once  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  sometimes  not  at  all ;  the 
church,  rudely  built  in  some  central  solitude,  was  seldom 
visited  by  the  more  remote  families,  and  was  liable  to  be- 
come inaccessible  by  the  broken  limbs  from  forest  trees  or 
the  wanton  growth  of  underwood  and  thickets. 

Here  was  a  new  form  of  human  nature.  A  love  of  free- 
dom inclining  to  anarchy  pervaded  the  country ;  loyalty 
was  a  feebler  passion  than  the  love  of  liberty.  Existence 
"without  government"  seemed  to  promise  to  "the  general 
mass"  —  it  is  a  genuine  Virginia  sentiment — "a  greater 
degree  of  happiness "  than  the  tyranny  "  of  the  European 
governments."  Men  feared  injustice  more  than  they  feared 
disorder.  In  the  Old  World,  the  peasantry  crowded 
together  into  compact  villages;  the  farmers  of  Vir-  im. 
ginia  lived  asunder,  and  in  their  mild  climate  were 
scattered  very  widely,  rarely  meeting  in  numbers  except  at 
the  horse-race  or  the  county  court. 

It  was  among  such  a  people,  which  had  never  been  dis- 
ciplined to  resistance  by  the  heresies  of  sects  or  the  new 
opinions  of  "factious"  parties,  which,  till  the  restoration, 
had  found  the  wilderness  a  safe  protection  against  tyranny, 
and  had  enjoyed  "a  fifty  years'  experience  of  a  government 
easy  to  the  people,"  that  the  pressure  of  increasing  griev- 
ances excited  open  discontent.  Men  gathered  together  in 
the  gloom  of  the  forests  to  talk  of  their  hardships.  Half 
conscious  of  their  wrongs,  half  conscious  of  the  rightful 
remedy,  they  were  ripe  for  insurrection.  A  collision  bo- 


544  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XX. 

tween  prerogative  and  public  opinion,  between  that  part 
of  the  wealth  of  the  country  which  was  allied  with  royalisra 
and  the  great  mass  of  the  numbers  and  wealth  of  the  country, 
between  the  old  monarchical  system  and  the  American  popu- 
lar system,  was  at  hand.  Opinions  were  coming  into  life  ; 
and  the  plastic  effort  of  modern  political  being  was  blindly 
but  effectually  at  work. 

In  1674,  on  the  first  spontaneous  movement,  the  men 
of  wealth  and  established  consideration  kept  aloof. 
It  was  easily  suppressed  by  the  calm  advice  "  of  some 
discreet  persons,"  in  whom  the  discontented  had  confidence. 
Yet  it  was  not  without  effect ;  the  county  commissioners 
were  ordered  to  levy  no  more  taxes  for  their  own  emolu- 
ments. But,  as  the  great  abuses  continued  unreformed, 
the  murmurs  were  not  quieted.  The  common  people  were 
rendered  desperate  by  taxes,  which,  being  levied  for  polls, 
deprived  labor  of  nearly  all  its  earnings.  To  produce  an 
insurrection,  nothing  was  wanting  but  an  excuse  for  ap- 
pearing in  arms. 

The  causes  which  had  driven  the  Indians  of  New  Eng 
land  to  despair  acted  with  equal  force  on  the  natives  of 
Virginia. 

The  Seneca  Indians,  a  tribe  of  the  Five  Nations,  had 
driven  the  Susquehannahs  from  their  abode  at  the  head  of 
the  Chesapeake  to  the  vicinity  of  Piscataway  on  the  Poto- 
mac ;  and  Maryland  had  terminated  a  war  with  them 
1675.  and  their  confederates.  In  July,  1675,  a  party  of 
them,  crossing  from  the  Maryland  to  the  Virginia 
shore,  pillaged  a  plantation  whose  owner  they  charged 
with  having  defrauded  them  in  trade.  They  were  pursued, 
overtaken,  stripped  of  their  spoils,  and  beaten  or  killed. 
To  be  revenged  on  the  planter,  Indian  warriors  killed  two 
of  his  servants  and  his  son.  A  party  of  thirty  Virginians 
under  Brent  and  Mason  followed  them  across  the  river,  and 
killed  a  chief  and  ten  of  his  men,  while  the  rest  fled  for 
their  lives.  The  governor  of  Maryland  complained  to  Sir 
William  Berkeley  of  the  violation  of  his  jurisdiction.  Mean- 
time, the  Indians,  having  obtained  a  wonderful  skill  in  the 
use  of  fire-arms,  built  a  fort  within  the  border  of  Maryland, 


1675.  THE   GREAT  REBELLION  IN   VIRGINIA.  545 

and  grew  bold  and  formidable.  Virginian  and  Maryland 
volunteers  joined  together,  and  for  seven  weeks  besieged 
the  fort,  losing  fifty  men.  When  five  of  the  chiefs  came 
out  to  treat  of  peace,  they  were  kept  prisoners,  and  at  lust 
put  to  death.  The  besieged  made  their  escape  by  night 
with  all  their  wives  and  children  and  valuable  goods, 
wounding  and  killing  some  of  the  English  at  their  going 
off.  They  then  spread  themselves  from  the  vicinity 
of  Mount  Vernon  to  the  falls  of  James  River,  carry-  1675. 
ing  terror  to  every  grange  ;  murdering  in  blind  fury, 
till  their  passions  were  glutted ;  killing  at  one  time  thirty- 
six  persons  ;  and  then  running  off  into  the  woods. 

When  this  intelligence  was  brought  to  the  governor, 
he  ordered  a  competent  force  of  horse  and  foot,  under  the 
command  of  Sir  Henry  Chicheley,  to  pursue  the  murderers, 
with  full  power  to  make  peace  or  war.  But  no  sooner 
were  the  men  in  readiness  to  march  than  the  governor, 
who  had  a  monopoly  of  the  very  lucrative  Indian  trade, 
suddenly  recalled  the  commission,  disbanded  the  men, 
and,  referring  the  matter  to  the  next  assembly,  left  the 
frontier  defenceless.  As  a  consequence,  the  country  was 
laid  waste ;  one  parish  in  Rappahannock  county,  which  on 
the  twenty-fourth  of  January,  1676,  consisted  of  seventy- 
one  plantations,  was  within  the  next  seventeen  days  re- 
duced to  eleven.  In  the  twelve  months  preceding  March, 

1676,  "  three  hundred  Christian  persons  "  of  Virginia  were 
murdered  by  the  savages.     The   assembly,  when   it  came 
together,  did  nothing  to  prevent  these  massacres  but  to 
order  forts  to  be  built  on  the  heads  of  rivers  and  on  the 
frontiers  of  the  country.     The  measure  was  universally  dis- 
liked, as  one  attended  by  great  expense  and  bringing  no 
security ;  for  by  help  of  the  thick  woods,  swamps,  and  other 
covert,  the  Indians  could  pass  any  fort  at  their  pleasure. 
So  soon  as  they  became  aware  of  the  futility  of  the  prepara- 
tions against  them,  their  murders,  rapines,  and  outrages 
became   the  more   barbarous,  fierce,  and  frequent.    Many 
remote  plantations  were  deserted,  and  those  who  ventured 
to  stay  behind  were  destroyed.     Death  ranged  the   land 
under  the  hideous  forms  of  savage  cruelty. 

VOL.  i.  35 


546  COLONIAL  HISTORY  CHAP.  XX. 

The  cries  of  their  wives  and  children  growing  intolerable 
to  the  people,  who  believed  the  system  of  forts  to  be  "  a 
juggle  of  the  grandees  to  engross  all  the  tobacco,"  the  Vir- 
ginia currency,  "  into  their  own  hands,"  they  asked  leave  at 
their  own  charge  to  go  out  against  the  Indians  under  any 
commander  whom  the  governor  would  appoint.  Instead  of 
granting  their  request,  the  governor  by  proclamation  for- 
bade, under  a  heavy  penalty,  the  like  petitioning  in  the 
future,  and  even  gave  orders  to  the  garrisons  of  the 
forts  to  undertake  nothing  against  the  enemy  without  first 
making  a  report  to  him  and  receiving  his  special  orders  ; 
so  that  every  opportunity  of  attack  was  lost.  The  refusal 
confirmed  the  jealousy  that  he  was  swayed  by  avarice,  for, 
after  prohibiting  by  proclamation  all  trade  with  the  Indians, 
they  complained  that  he  privately  gave  commissions  to  his 
friends  to  truck  with  them  ;  and  that  these  persons  furnished 
them  with  more  powder  and  shot  than  were  in  the  hands  of 
the  planters. 

The  governor  received  news  that  formidable  bodies 

1676.  ,  .          _  1T  T-..  -. 

of  red  men  were  coming  down  the  James  Kiver,  and 
were  already  within  about  fifty  miles  of  the  plantations ; 
yet,  swayed  by  the  influence  of  interested  colonial  courtiers, 
he  still  refused  to  commission  any  one  to  resist  them.  The 
people  of  Charles  City  county  therefore,  exercising  the  nat- 
ural right  of  self-defence,  with  the  silent  assent  of  the  mag- 
istrates, beat  up  for  volunteers,  who,  as  they  assembled, 
wanted  nothing  but  a  leader.  It  happened  that  Nathaniel 
Bacon  had  arrived  in  that  part  of  the  world  about  fourteen 
months  before.  He  was  of  an  ancient  family  and  an  only 
son.  Born  during  the  contests  between  the  parliament  and 
Charles  I.,  nursed  amidst  the  struggles  of  the  democratic 
revolution,  he  had  studied  in  the  inns  of  court,  and  had 
travelled  widely  on  the  continent  of  Europe.  When  about 
three-and-thirty  years  of  age,  he  was  seized  with  a  desire 
to  see  the  New  World,  and  came  over  to  Virginia  with  a 
large  capital.  His  birth,  his  culture,  and  his  fortune  ob- 
tained for  him,  immediately  on  his  arrival,  a  seat  in  the 
council ;  and  this  honor  raised  his  consideration  with  the 
people.  In  person  he  was  tall  but  slender,  of  a  pensive. 


1676.  THE   GREAT  REBELLION  IN   VIRGINIA.  547 

melancholy  cast  of  features,  inclined  to  silence,  discreet  in 
speech,  and  not  given  to  sudden  replies.  "With  a  pleasing 
address  and  a  commanding  power  of  elocution,  he  had  not 
as  yet  been  suspected  of  ambition.  Discoursing  with  two 
Virginians  on  the  sadness  of  the  times,  the  danger  from  the 
Susquehannahs,  by  whom,  among  others,  his  overseer  had 
been  murdered  on  his  plantation,  near  where  the  James 
River  leaps  into  the  lowlands  and  the  city  of  Richmond 
now  towers  above  flood  and  vale,  they  persuaded  him  to  go 
over  and  see  the  volunteers  collected  on  the  other  side  of 
the  James  River.  As  he  came  among  them,  of  a  sudden, 
without  any  previous  knowledge  on  his  part,  they  all  with 
one  voice  shouted,  "  A  Bacon !  a  Bacon ! "  and  prevailed 
upon  him  to  become  their  chief.  His  consent  cheered  and 
animated  them,  for  they  looked  upon  him  as  the  great 
friend  and  preserver  of  the  country.  On  his  side,  he  set 
forth  his  purpose  not  only  to  destroy  the  common  enemy, 
but  to  obtain  the  absolutely  necessary  redress  of  unjust 
taxes  and  laws,  and  to  recover  their  liberties.  The  volun- 
teers severally  wrote  their  names  in  a  round-robin,  and  took 
an  oath  to  stick  fast  to  one  another  and  to  him.  The  county 
of  New  Kent  was  ripe  to  take  part  with  them. 

Berkeley  would  grant  no  permission  to  them  to  rise  and 
protect  themselves.  Then  followed  just  indignation  at  mis- 
Bpent  entreaties ;  and,  as  soon  as  Bacon  had  three  hundred 
men  in  arms,  he  led  them  against  the  Indians.  At 
the  same  time,  his  commanding  abilities  gave  the  1676. 
ascendency  to  the  principles  which  he  espoused. 

Moderation  on  the  part  of  the  government  would  still  have 
restored  peace.  Sober  men  in  Virginia  were  of  opinion  that 
a  few  concessions  —  the  secure  possession  of  land,  the  liber- 
ties of  free-born  subjects  of  England,  a  diminution  of  the 
public  expenses,  a  tax  on  real  estate  rather  than  on  polls 
alone  —  would  have  quieted  the  colony.  But  hardly 
had  Bacon  begun  his  march,  when  Berkeley,  yielding  April, 
to  the  instigations  of  a  very  small  number  of  a  selfish 
faction,  proclaimed  him  and  his  followers  rebels,  and  levied 
troops  to  pursue  them.  As  a  consequence,  a  new  insurrec- 
tion compelled  the  governor  to  return  to  Jamestown.  The 


548  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XX. 

lower  counties  had  risen  in  arms,  and  demanded  the  "  im- 
mediate dissolution  "  of  the  old  assembly,  to  which  they 
ascribed  their  griefs. 

With  the  mass  of  the  people  against  him,  the  testy  Cava- 
lier was  constrained  to  yield.  The  assembly,  which  had 
become  odious  by  its  long  duration,  the  selfishness  of  its 
members,  and  its  subversion  of  popular  freedom,  was  dis- 
solved ;  writs  for  a  new  election  were  issued  ;  and  Bacon, 
returning  in  triumph  from  his  Indian  warfare,  was  unani- 
mously elected  a  burgess  from  Henrico  county. 

In  the  choice  of  this  assembly,  which  went  by  the  name 
of  Bacon,  the  late  disfranchisement  of  freemen  was  little 
regarded.  A  majority  of  the  members  returned  were 
"much  infected"  with  the  principles  of  Bacon;  and  their 
speaker,  Thomas  Godwin,  was  notoriously  a  friend  to  all 
"  the  rebellion  and  treason  which  distracted  Virginia."  In 
the  midst  of  contradictory  testimony  on  their  character,  the 
acts  of  the  assembly  in  June  must  be  taken  as  paramount 
authority  on  the  purposes  of  "  the  Grand  Rebellion  in 
Virginia." 

1676  The  late  expenditures  of  public  money  had  not  been 

June  accounted  for.  High  debates  arose  on  the  wrongs  of 
the  indigent,  who  were  oppressed  by  taxes  alike  un- 
equal and  exorbitant.  The  monopoly  of  the  Indian  trade 
was  suspended.  A  compromise  with  the  insurgents  was 
effected ;  on  the  one  hand,  Bacon  acknowledged  his  error 
in  acting  without  a  commission,  and  the  assemblies  of  dis- 
affected persons  were  censured  as  acts  of  mutiny  and  rebel- 
lion ;  on  the  other,  he  was  restored  to  favor,  readmitted  into 
the  council,  and  promised  a  commission  as  general,  to  the 
universal  satisfaction  of  the  people,  who  made  the  town 
ring  with  their  joyous  acclamations  at  the  appointment  of 
"  the  darling  of  their  hopes  "  to  be  the  defender  of  Vir- 
ginia. The  church  aristocracy  was  broken  up  by  limiting 
the  term  of  office  of  the  vestrymen  to  three  years,  and 
giving  the  election  of  them  to  the  freemen  of  each  parish. 
The  elective  franchise  was  restored  to  the  freemen  whom 
the  previous  assembly  had  disfranchised ;  and,  as  "  false 
returns  of  sheriffs  had  endangered  the  peace,"  the  purity 


1676.  THE   GREAT   REBELLION  IN  VIRGINIA.  549 

of  elections  was  guarded  by  wholesome  penalties.  The 
arbitrary  annual  assessments,  hitherto  made  by  county  mag- 
istrates, irresponsible  to  the  people,  were  prohibited  ;  the 
Virginians  insisted  on  the  exclusive  right  of  taxing  them- 
selves, and  made  provision  for  the  county  levy  by  the  vote 
of  their  own  representatives.  The  fees  of  the  governor, 
in  cases  of  probate  and  administration,  were  curtailed ; 
the  unequal  immunities  of  councillors  were  abrogated ;  the 
sale  of  wines  and  ardent  spirits  was  absolutely  prohibited, 
if  not  at  Jamestown,  yet  otherwise  through  the  whole  coun- 
try ;  two  of  the  magistrates,  notorious  for  raising  county 
taxes  for  their  private  gains,  were  disfranchised ;  and  finally, 
that  there  might  be  no  room  for  future  reproach  or  discord, 
all  past  derelictions  were  covered  by  a  general  amnesty. 

The  measures  of  the  assembly  were  not  willingly  con- 
ceded by  Berkeley,  who  refused  to  sign  the  commission  that 
had  been  promised.  Fearing  treachery,  Bacon  secretly 
withdrew,  to  recount  his  wrongs  to  the  people ;  and  in  a  few 
days  he  reappeared  in  the  city  at  the  head  of  nearly  five 
hundred  armed  men,  whom  he  paraded  in  front  of  the  state 
house.  The  governor,  rising  from  the  chair  of  judicature, 
came  down  to  him,  and  told  him  to  his  face,  and  before 
all  his  men,  that  he  was  a  rebel  and  a  traitor,  and  should 
have  no  commission  ;  and,  uncovering  his  naked  bosom, 
required  that  some  of  the  men  might  shoot  him,  before  ever 
he  would  be  drawn  to  sign  or  consent  to  a  commission  for 
such  a  rebel.  "No,"  continued  Berkeley,  "let  us  first 
try  and  end  the  difference  singly  between  ourselves,"  and 
offered  to  measure  swords  with  him.  To  the  challenge 
Bacon  gave  only  this  answer  :  "  Sir,  I  came  not  nor  intend 
to  hurt  a  hair  of  your  head,  and,  for  your  sword,  your  honor 
may  please  to  put  it  up  ;  it  shall  rust  in  the  scabbard  before 
ever  I  shall  desire  you  to  draw  it.  I  come  for  a  com- 
mission against  the  heathen,  who  daily  inhumanly  murder 
us,  and  spill  our  brethren's  blood,  and  no  care  is  taken  to 
prevent  it."  When  passion  had  subsided,  Berkeley  yielded. 
The  commission  was  issued ;  the  governor  united  with  the 
burgesses  and  council  in  transmitting  to  England  warm 
commendations  of  the  zeal,  loyalty,  and  patriotism  of  Bacon, 


552  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAI-.  XX. 

The  discontent  pervaded  the  whole  province ;  and  in- 
creased when,  after  a  year's  patience  under  accumulated 
oppressions,  the  envoys  of  the  colonies,  themselves  by  their 
heavy  expenses  a  new  burden,  reported  no  hope  of  a  charter 
or  any  remedy  of  their  grievances  from  England. 
AugG'3.  The  call  to  Virginia  was  answered  ;  none  were  will- 
ing to  sit  idle  in  the  time  of  general  calamity.  Her 
most  eminent  men  came  together  at  Middle  Plantation. 
Bacon  excelled  them  all  in  argument ;  the  public  mind  was 
swayed  by  his  judgment,  and  an  oath  was  taken  by  the 
whole  convention  to  support  him  against  the  Indians,  and, 
if  possible,  to  prevent  a  civil  war ;  should  the  governor  per- 
severe in  his  obstinate  self-will,  to  pi-otect  him  against  every 
armed  force ;  and  even  if  troops  should  arrive  from  Eng- 
land, to  resist  them,  till  an  appeal  could  reach  the  king  in 
person.  Copies  of  this  oath  were  sent  to  the  counties  of 
Virginia ;  and  by  the  magistrates,  and  others  of  the  respec- 
tive precincts,  it  was  administered  to  the  people,  "  none, 
or  very  few,  refusing."  The  wives  of  Virginia  statesmen 
shared  the  enthusiasm.  "  The  child  that  is  unborn,"  said 
Sarah  Drummond,  "  a  notorious  and  wicked  rebel,"  "  shall 
have  cause  to  rejoice  for  the  good  that  will  come  by  the  ris- 
ing of  the  country."  "  Should  we  overcome  the  governor," 
said  Ralph  Weldinge, "  we  must  expect  a  greater  power  from 
England,  that  would  certainly  be  our  ruin."  Sarah  Drum- 
mond remembered  that  England  was  divided  into  hostile 
factions  for  the  Duke  of  York  and  the  Duke  of  Monmouth. 
Taking  from  the  ground  a  small  stick,  she  broke  it  in  twain, 
adding:  "I  fear  the  power  of  England  no  more  than  a 
broken  straw."  The  relief  from  the  hated  navigation  acts 
seemed  certain.  Now  "  we  can  build  ships,"  it  was  urged, 
"and,  like  New  England,  trade  to  any  part  of  the  world." 
The  stout-hearted  woman  would  not  suffer  a  throb  of  fear 
in  her  bosom.  In  the  greatest  perils  to  which  her  husband 
was  exposed,  she  confidently  exclaimed :  "  We  shall  do  well 
enough  ; "  continuing  to  encourage  the  people  and  inspire 
the  soldiers  with  her  own  enthusiasm. 

Fortified  by  this  unanimity  of  the  gentlemen  of  Virginia 
assembled  at  Williamsburg,  and  of  the  people  in  their  sev- 


1676.  THE   GREAT   REBELLION  IN   VIRGINIA.  553 

eral  counties,  Bacon  led  his  troops  against  the  savages. 
Meantime,  Sir  William  Berkeley  collected  in  Accomack 
a  crowd  of  base  and  cowardly  followers,  allured  by  the 
passion  for  plunder..  Civil  wars  were  one  of  the  means 
of  enfranchising  the  serfs  of  England ;  Berkeley  promised 
freedom  to  the  servants  and  slaves  of  the  insurgents,  if  they 
would  rally  under  his  banner.  The  English  vessels  in  the 
harbors  naturally  joined  his  side.  With  a  fleet  of  five  ships 
and  ten  sloops,  attended  by  a  rabble  of  hirelings,  the 
Cavalier  sailed  for  Jamestown,  where  he  landed  with- 
out  opposition.  Entering  the  town,  he  fell  on  his 
knees,  returning  thanks  to  God  for  his  safe  arrival;  and 
again  proclaimed  Bacon  and  his  party  traitors  and  rebels. 

The  cry  resounded  through  the  forests  for  "  the  country- 
men "  to  come  down.  "  Speed,"  it  was  said,  "  or  we  shall 
all  be  made  slaves, — mao,  woman,  and  child."  "Your 
sword,"  said  Drumraond  to  Lawrence,  "is  your  commission, 
and  mine  too ;  the  sword  must  end  it ; "  and  both  prepared 
for  resistance. 

Having  returned  from  a  successful  expedition  and  dis- 
banded his  troops,  Bacon  had  retained  but  a  small  body  of 
men  when  the  tidings  of  the  armed  occupation  of  James- 
town surprised  him  in  his  retirement.  His  eloquence  in- 
spired his  few  followers  with  courage.  "  With  marvellous 
celerity  "  they  hastened  towards  their  enemy.  On  the  wny 
they  secured  as  hostages  the  wives  of  royalists  who  were 
with  Berkeley.  They  soon  appeared  under  arms  before 
the  town,  sounded  defiance,  and,  under  the  mild  light  of 
a  September  moon,  threw  up  a  rude  intrenchment.  They 
were  with  difficulty  held  back  from  storming  the  place  by 
Bacon,  who  valued  his  friends  too  much  to  risk  the  life 
of  one  of  them  without  necessity. 

The  followers  of  Berkeley  were  too  cowardly  to  succeed 
in  a  sally ;  and,  to  secure  plunder,  they  made  excuses  to 
desert.  No  considerable  service  was  done,  except  by  the 
seamen.  What  availed  the  passionate  fury  and  desperate 
courage  of  a  brave,  irascible  old  man?  Unable  to  li"M 
his  position,  from  the  cowardice  of  his  men,  he  retreated 
from  the  town  by  night. 


552 

The  fli  ontent  p 

creased  \  jn,   after 

oppressio  the  envo 

heavy  ex]  ises  a  new 

or  iy  reraed 
Th  call  to  Vi 

ing  >  sit  idle  in 


1676. 
Aug.  3. 


most  emi 
Bacon  ex< 
swayed  b 


nt   men 
ed  them  al 
his  judgme 


whole  con  ntion  to 

if  possible  )  prevent  a 

severe  in 

armed  f< 

land,  to 

person. 

Virginia 

tive  prec 

or 


obstinate 

ami  I'vi-n   if 
them,  till  an 
:    this  oat, 


of  th 


1676. 


eral  i 


a  cv<' 
of  enfr:1:' 

WouW  v 

h:»vl>'"> 
and  ten  E 
Cavalier  > 

out 

knees,  return 
again  proclaim 
The  cry  r 

men  "to  corn 

all  be 


V     11: 

diffici 

,1'ir" 


554  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XX. 

On  the  morning  after  the  retreat,  Bacon  entered  the  little 
capital  of  Virginia.  There  lay  the  ashes  of  Gosnold  ;  there 
the  gallant  Smith  had  told  the  tale  of  his  adventures; 
there  Pocahontas  had  sported  in  the  simplicity  of  innocence. 
For  nearly  seventy  years  it  had  been  the  abode  of  Anglo- 
Saxons.  As  it  was  well  fortified,  a  council  of  war  resolved 
to  burn  the  only  town  in  Virginia,  that  it  might  not 
afford  shelter  for  an  enemy.  As  the  shades  of  night  de- 
scended, and  after  the  records  of  the  colony  had  been 
removed  by  Drummond  to  a  place  of  safety,  the  village  was 
set  on  fire.  Two  of  the  best  houses  belonged  to  Lawrence 
and  Drummond ;  each  of  them,  with  his  own  hand,  kindled 
the  flames  that  were  to  lay  his  dwelling  in  ashes.  The  little 
church,  the  oldest  in  the  dominion,  the  newly  erected  state 
house,  were  consumed.  In  the  darkness  the  conflagration 
blazed  high  in  the  air,  and  was  seen  by  the  fleet  that  lay 
at  anchor  twenty  miles  below  the  town.  The  ruins  of  the 
tower  of  the  church,  and  the  memorials  in  the  adjacent 
graveyard,  are  all  that  now  mark  for  the  stranger  the  penin- 
sula of  Jamestown. 

Leaving  the  smoking  ruins,  Bacon  hastened  to  meet  the 
royalists  from  the  Rappahannock.  No  engagement  ensued  ; 
the  troops  in  a  body  joined  the  patriot  party ;  and  Brent, 
their  leader,  was  left  at  the  mercy  of  the  insurgents.  Even 
the  inhabitants  of  Gloucester  gave  pledges  of  adhesion. 
Nothing  remained  but  to  cross  the  bay,  and  revolutionize 
the  eastern  shore. 

During  the  siege  of  Jamestown,  the  insurgent  army  had 
been  exposed  to  the  fatal  dews  and  night  air  of  the  lowlands. 
Bacon  suddenly  sickened ;  vainly  struggled  with  a  most 
malignant  disease,  and  on  the  first  day  of  October  died. 
Seldom  has  a  political  leader  been  more  honored  by  his 
friends.  "Who  is  there  now,"  said  they,  "to  plead  our 
cause  ?  His  eloquence  could  animate  the  coldest  hearts ; 
his  pen  and  sword  alike  compelled  the  admiration  of  his 
foes,  and  it  was  but  their  own  guilt  that  styled  him  a  crim- 
inal. His  name  must  bleed  for  a  season ;  but  when  time 
shall  bring  to  Virginia  truth  crowned  with  freedom,  and 
safe  against  danger,  posterity  shall  sound  his  praises." 


1676.  THE   GREAT   REBELLION  IN   VIRGINIA.  555 

The  death  of  Bacon  left  his  party  without  a  head.  A 
series  of  petty  insurrections  followed ;  but  in  Robert  Bever- 
ley  the  royalists  found  an  agent  superior  to  any  of  the 
remaining  insurgents.  The  ships  in  the  river,  including  one 
which  had  been  recovered  from  the  party  of  Bacon,  were  at 
his  disposal,  and  a  warfare  in  detail  restored  the  supremacy 
of  the  governor. 

Thomas  Hansford,  a  native  Virginian,  was  the  first  par- 
tisan leader  whom  Beverley  surprised.  Young,  gay,  and 
gallant,  impatient  of  restraint,  keenly  sensitive  to  honor,  "  a 
valiant  stout  man  and  a  most  resolved  rebel,"  he  was  a  true 
representative  of  the  Virginia  character.  He  disdained  to 
shrink  from  the  malice  of  destiny,  and  Berkeley  con- 
demned him  to  be  hanged.  Neither  at  his  trial  nor  No^6i'a. 
afterwards  did  he  show  any  diminution  of  fortitude. 
He  demanded  no  favor,  but  that  "  he  might  be  shot  like 
a  soldier,  and  not  hanged  like  a  dog."  "  You  die,"  it  was 
answered, "  not  as  a  soldier,  but  as  a  rebel."  During  the  short 
respite  after  sentence,  he  reviewed  his  life,  and  expressed 
penitence  for  every  sin.'  What  was  charged  on  him  as  re- 
bellion, he  denied  to  have  been  a  sin.  "  Take  notice,"  said 
he,  as  he  came  to  the  gibbet,  "  I  die  a  loyal  subject  and  a 
lover  of  my  country."  That  country  was  Virginia. 

Taking  advantage  of  their  naval  superiority,  a  party  of 
royalists  entered  York  River,  and  surprised  the  troops  that 
were  led  by  Edmund  Cheesman  and  Thomas  Wilford.  The 
latter,  a  younger  son  of  a  royalist  knight,  who  had  fallen  in 
the  wars  for  Charles  I.,  a  truly  brave  man,  and  now  by  his 
industry  a  successful  emigrant,  lost  an  eye  in  the  skirmish. 
"  Were  I  stark  blind,"  said  he,  "  the  governor  would  afford 
me  a  guide  to  the  gallows."  When  Cheesman  was  ar- 
raigned for  trial,  Berkeley  demanded :  "  Why  did  you 
engage  in  Bacon's  designs?"  Before  the  prisoner  could 
frame  an  answer,  his  wife,  a  young  woman,  stepped  forward. 
"  My  provocations,"  such  were  her  words,  "  made  my  hus- 
band join  in  the  cause  for  which  Bacon  contended ;  but  for 
me,  he  had  never  done  what  he  has  done.  Since  what  is 
done,"  she  added,  falling  on  her  knees,  "  was  done  by  my 
means,  I  am  most  guilty  ;  let  me  bear  the  punishment ;  lot 


556  •  COLONIAL  HISTOEY.  CHAP.  XX. 

me  be  hanged,  but  let  my  husband  be  pardoned."  She 
spoke  truth ;  but  the  governor  angrily  cried,  "  Away ! " 
adding  reproach  to  the  purity  of  her  nuptial  bed.  Proud 
insolence !  As  if  woman  would  die  for  one  she  had  dis- 
honored ! 

The  passions  of  Berkeley  grew  with  the  opportunity  of 
indulgence.  Nothing  is  so  merciless  as  offended  pride ;  it 
remembers  a  former  affront  as  proof  of  weakness,  and  seeks 
to  restore  self-esteem  by  a  flagrant  exercise  of  recovered 
power.  No  sentiment  of  clemency  was  tolerated.  From 
fear  that  a  jury  would  bring  in  verdicts  of  acquittal, 
men  were  hurried  to  death  from  courts-martial.  "  You  are 
very  welcome,"  cried  the  exulting  Berkeley,  with  a 
Ja!n.720.  l°w  b°w?  on  meeting  William  Drummond,  as  his  pris- 
oner ;  "  I  am  more  glad  to  see  you  than  any  man  in 
Virginia ;  you  shall  be  hanged  in  half  an  hour."  The  pa- 
triot, avowing  the  part  he  had  acted,  was  condemned  at 
one  o'clock  and  hanged  at  four.  His  children  and  wife 
were  driven  from  their  home,  to  depend  on  the  charity  of 
the  planters.  At  length  it  was  deemed  safe  to  resort  to  the 
civil  tribunal,  where  the  judges  proceeded  with  the  viru- 
lence of  accusers.  A  panic  paralyzed  the  juries.  Of  those 
put  on  trial,  none  escaped  being  convicted  and  sent  to  the 
gallows.  In  defiance  of  remonstrances,  executions 
Jan.  29.  continued  till  twenty-two  had  been  hanged.  Three 
others  had  died  of  cruelty  in  prison ;  three  more  had 
fled  before  trial ;  two  had  escaped  after  conviction.  More 
lives  were  taken  than,  on  the  action  of  our  present  system, 
would  be  taken  for  political  offences  in  a  thousand  years. 
"  The  old  fool,"  said  the  kind-hearted  Charles  II.,  with 
truth,  "  has  taken  away  more  lives  in  that  naked  country 
than  I,  for  the  murder  of  my  father."  And  in  a  public 
proclamation  he  censured  the  conduct  of  Berkeley,  as  con- 
trary to  his  commands  and  derogatory  to  his  clemency. 
Nor  is  it  certain  when  the  carnage  would  have  ended,  had 
not  the  assembly,  newly  convened,  voted  an  address 
Feb7720  "  ^at  the  governor  would  spill  no  more  blood." 
"  Had  we  let  him  alone,  he  would  have  hanged  half 
the  country,"  said  the  member  from  Northampton  to  his 


• 
1677.  THE   GREAT  REBELLION  IN  VIRGINIA.  557 

colleague  from  Stafford.  Berkeley  was  as  rapacious  as 
cruel,  amassing  property  by  penalties  and  confiscations. 
The  king  promptly  superseded  him  by  a  special  commission 
to  a  lieutenant-governor;  but  he  pleaded  his  higher  au- 
thority as  governor,  and  refused  to  give  way.  When  the 
fair-minded  royal  commissioners  of  inquiry  visited  him,  he 
sought  out  the  hangman  of  the  colony  to  drive  them  from 
his  house  to  their  boat  in  the  river ;  so  that  they  went  on 
foot  to  the  landing-place.  The  news  of  his  contumacy 
reaching  England,  most  peremptory  orders  were  sent  for 
his  removal.  With  the  returning  squadron  Sir  William 
Berkeley  sailed  for  England.  Guns  were  fired  and  bonfires 
kindled  at  his  departure.  Public  opinion  in  England  cen- 
sured his  conduct  with  equal  severity;  and  the  report  of 
the  commissioners  in  Virginia  was  fatal  to  his  reputation. 
He  died  soon  after  his  arrival  in  England. 

The  memory  of  those  who  have  been  wronged  is  always 
pursued  by  the  ungenerous.  England,  ambitious  of  ab- 
solute colonial  supremacy,  could  not  render  justice  to  the 
principles  by  which  Bacon  was  swayed.  No  printing-press 
was  allowed  in  Virginia.  To  speak  ill  of  Berkeley  or  his 
friends  was  punished  by  whipping  or  a  fine ;  to  speak  or 
write,  or  publish  any  thing,  in  favor  of  the  rebels  or  the  re- 
bellion, was  made  a  high  misdemeanor ;  if  thrice  repeated, 
was  evidence  of  treason.  Every  accurate  account  of  the  in- 
surrection remained  in  manuscript  till  the  present  century. 

It  was  on  this  occasion  that  English  troops  were  first  in- 
troduced into  the  English  colonies  in  America.  After  three 
years,  they  were  disbanded,  and  mingled  with  the  people. 

The  results  of  Bacon's  rebellion  were  disastrous  for  Vir- 
ginia.     Her  form   of  government  was   defined  by 
royal  instructions  that  had  been  addressed  to  Berke-  Nor.  13. 
ley.    Assemblies  were  required  to  be  called  but  once 
in  two  years,  and  to  sit  but  fourteen  days,  unless  for  special 
reasons.      "  You   shall   take  care,"  said    the    king,   "  that 
the  members  of  assembly  be  elected  only  by  free- 
holders."    In  conformity  with  these  instructions,  all       ^; 
the  acts  of   Bacon's   assembly,  except   perhaps   one 
which  permitted  the  enslaving  of  Indians  and  which  was 


41449 

558  COLONIAL  HISTORY.  CHAP.  XX. 

confirmed  and  renewed,  were  absolutely  repealed,  and  the 
former  grievances  immediately  returned.  The  private  lev- 
ies, unequal  and  burdensome,  were  managed  by  men  who 
combined  to  defraud ;  the  public  revenues  were  often  mis- 
applied ;  each  church  was  again  subjected  to  its  self-perpetu- 
ating vestry.  The  burden  of  the  enormous  loss  sustained 
by  the  insurrection  was  more  severely  felt  by  the  poorer 
classes,  because  the  elective  franchise  was  circumscribed, 
while  taxes  continued  to  be  levied  by  the  poll.  The  com- 
missioners sent  by  the  king  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of 
Virginia  allowed  every  district  to  present  its  afflictions. 
The  county  of  Westmoreland,  of  which  John  Washington 
was  a  burgess  and  a  magistrate,  declared  that  it  felt  no 
grievances.  In  other  counties  there  were  long  reports  of 
tyranny  and  rapine.  But,  if  complaints  were  heard  with 
impartiality,  every  measure  of  effectual  reform  was  made 
void,  and  every  aristocratic  feature  that  had  been  introduced 
into  legislation  was  perpetuated. 


END    OF   VOLUME    ONE. 


Cambridge :  Press  of  John  Wilson  &  Son. 


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